Health

Coronavirus UK: Death toll hits 759 with almost 15,000 cases


Britain’s coronavirus death toll today jumped dramatically to 759 in the biggest daily rise yet – as the Government promised to start testing frontline NHS staff for the life-threatening infection this weekend. 

Health chiefs declared 181 new deaths and 2,921 cases of the deadly virus across the home nations, taking the UK’s total infected count to almost 15,000 as the crisis continues to spiral out of control.

Britain’s darkest day in the coronavirus outbreak beats yesterday’s record high figures of 113 new deaths and 2,129 cases of the virus, which has been spreading on British soil for a month. 

It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted they had tested positive for COVID-19, with England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty also displaying symptoms.

Chairing this evening’s Downing Street press conference in their absence, Michael Gove claimed hundreds of NHS workers on the coronavirus frontline will be tested for the killer virus by ‘the end of the weekend’.

He revealed the trial of antigen tests – which can tell if someone has the infection immediately – will be scaled up next week.  

The announcement comes amid a furious row over the UK’s lacklustre testing policy, which has seen only patients in hospital get tested – even NHS workers have been deprived tests. It means the true scale of the UK’s outbreak is a mystery.

In another frantic day of developments in the battle against coronavirus:

  • A council is facing a furious backlash after targeting members of the public with drones to order people back inside;
  • Lawyers warned that police are ‘unlawfully’ trying to restrict people travelling to isolated spots to exercise and walk their dogs;
  • Pressure grew on the government to go further to help millions of self-employed after the Chancellor admitted a bailout will not be up and running until June;
  • Buckingham Palace has said the Queen remains in ‘good health’ and has not seen the infected Prime Minister since March 11;
  • A 76-year-old GP in Essex is feared to have become the first doctor in the UK to die after contracting the coronavirus;
  • Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley apologised for ‘ill-judged and poorly timed’ emails that claimed Sports Direct was an essential operator;
  • British supermarkets said they will use a government database of 1.5million vulnerable shoppers to help prioritise delivery slots;
  • It emerged the UK did not participate in an European Union scheme for sourcing more ventilators quickly because of an email mix-up.

Coronavirus arrived at the heart of power today as both Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock dramatically announced they are suffering from the disease

Coronavirus arrived at the heart of power today as both Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock dramatically announced they are suffering from the disease

Coronavirus arrived at the heart of power today as both  Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock dramatically announced they are suffering from the disease

England's Chief Medical Officer Professor Christ Whitty - who is leading the UK's fight against the outbreak - is also self-isolating at home after coming down with mild symptoms

England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Christ Whitty – who is leading the UK’s fight against the outbreak – is also self-isolating at home after coming down with mild symptoms

HEALTH SECRETARY MATT HANCOCK AND BORIS CONFIRM THEY HAVE CORONAVIRUS 

Coronavirus arrived at the heart of power today as Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock dramatically announced they are suffering from the disease.

The bombshell news threatens to send the government’s response into chaos, with speculation rampant over who else might be infected at the highest echelons of the state. 

The politicians are believed to have carried out a slew of face-to-face meetings over the past week. But Downing Street insists there is no need for other ministers or officials to get checked unless they start displaying symptoms. 

The drama kicked off this morning when Mr Johnson declared he had coronavirus.  Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty advised him to get a test after he developed a temperature and cough yesterday afternoon.

The 55-year-old insisted he only has ‘mild’ symptoms’, and will be continuing to lead the national response over video-conference. The PM will stay in his flat in No11 – from where he chaired a meeting of the ‘war Cabinet’ this morning – and aides will leave meals and work outside the door.  

Within hours Mr Hancock then revealed he also has the virus. ‘I’ve tested positive. Thankfully my symptoms are mild and I’m working from home & self-isolating,’ he tweeted. Mr Hancock had been expected to appear at the daily government press briefing this evening, but Michael Gove is now likely to fill in.  

Despite the government’s own guidance saying people must self-isolate for 14 days if anyone in their ‘household’ develops symptoms, no senior figures – such as Chancellor Rishi Sunak who was with the PM last night or chief aide Dominic Cummings – are thought to be going into isolation. Mr Cummings was seen making a hasty exit from Downing Street today carrying a rucksack.  

Mr Johnson’s pregnant partner Carrie Symonds is believed to be in self-isolation, although it is not known when they last saw each other or if she has been checked. 

In a video, Mr Johnson said: ‘Hi folks I want to bring you up to speed on something that is happening today which is that I have developed mild symptoms of coronavirus, that is to say a temperature and a persistent cough, and on the advice of the chief medical officer I have taken a test. 

… NOW ENGLAND’S CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER AND HEAD OF PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND TEST POSITIVE TOO  

England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Christ Whitty – who is leading the UK’s fight against the outbreak – is also self-isolating at home after coming down with mild symptoms.

Professor Whitty, who has been standing alongside the Prime Minister at his daily coronavirus news briefings, tweeted that he would be staying at home for the next seven days – just hours after Boris confirmed his diagnosis. 

Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, started to develop tell-tale symptoms of COVID-19 at the weekend, a spokesperson for Public Health England said.

He is continuing to lead the health body from the comfort of his own home.

The daily death count is not only a count from overnight – the toll includes fatalities hospitals have only just processed, for example patients whose post-mortems have just come back.

Government scientists have admitted there is likely to be 1,000 infected patients for every death recorded in Britain – suggesting the true toll is in the region of 600,000. 

Mr Gove announced that increased ‘antigen testing’, developed in partnership between UK businesses, research institutes and universities, will be rolled out ‘immediately’ to those working in hospitals and social care.

He said the testing would ‘dramatically’ scale up next week, allowing key workers to ‘have security in the knowledge that they can safely return to work if their test is negative’. 

Antigens are parts of a virus that trigger the immune system’s response to fight the infection, and can show up in blood before antibodies are made. 

The key advantage of antigen tests is that it can take several days for the immune system to develop enough antibodies to be picked up by a test, whereas antigens can be seen almost immediately after infection. 

Antigen tests are used to diagnose patients with flu, as well as malaria, strep A and HIV. 

The announcement comes after a major row over a lack of tests, particularly for healthcare workers who are critical to prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed during the crisis.

Statistics show the UK is still testing less than 10,000 people every day. In the last 24 hours just 8,911 were checked for the bug, and on Thursday it was 7,847. 

Thousands of healthcare workers are stuck at home self-isolating, despite showing no symptoms, because of Government guidelines which state people must not go to work if a family member has fallen ill.

But many of them will not have the virus and could be in hospitals helping to fight the crisis.  

On Tuesday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock assured medics he had ordered 3.5 million revolutionary ‘antibody’ tests that could be available to them within days.

But in a major u-turn, Government sources now claim the agreement was ‘only ever in principle’ after experts said it could be weeks until the tests are ready for mass use. 

Several different companies have been approached over contributing to the 3.5 million tests needed – including the makers of an HIV self screening kit and a £6 finger prick device that works like a pregnancy test. But none is yet ready to supply them. 

Manufacturers said they were working around the clock to develop the devices, which can tell someone within 15 minutes whether they are immune to reinfection.

In a major blow for the Government, they said it will be three weeks at the earliest before tests are available.    

It comes after Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced they are suffering from the disease.

Speculation is now rampant over who else might be infected at the highest echelons of the state. The politicians are believed to have carried out a slew of face-to-face meetings over the past week.  

But Downing Street insists there is no need for other ministers or officials to get checked unless they start displaying symptoms.

The drama kicked off this morning when Mr Johnson declared he had coronavirus. Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty advised him to get a test after he developed a temperature and cough yesterday afternoon.

The 55-year-old insisted he only has ‘mild’ symptoms’, and will be continuing to lead the national response over video-conference. 

The PM will stay in his flat in No11 – from where he chaired a meeting of the ‘war Cabinet’ this morning – and aides will leave meals and work outside the door.

Within hours Mr Hancock then revealed he also has the virus. ‘I’ve tested positive. Thankfully my symptoms are mild and I’m working from home & self-isolating,’ he tweeted. 

Mr Hancock had been expected to appear at the daily government press briefing this evening, but Michael Gove is now likely to fill in.

Despite the government’s own guidance saying people must self-isolate for 14 days if anyone in their ‘household’ develops symptoms, no senior figures – such as Chancellor Rishi Sunak who was with the PM last night or chief aide Dominic Cummings – are thought to be going into isolation. Mr Cummings was seen making a hasty exit from Downing Street today carrying a rucksack.

Mr Johnson’s pregnant partner Carrie Symonds is believed to be in self-isolation, although it is not known when they last saw each other or if she has been checked.

In a video, Mr Johnson said: ‘Hi folks I want to bring you up to speed on something that is happening today which is that I have developed mild symptoms of coronavirus, that is to say a temperature and a persistent cough, and on the advice of the chief medical officer I have taken a test.

‘That has come out positive so I am working from home, I am self isolating.

‘That is entirely the right thing to do but be in no doubt that I can continue thanks to the wizardry of modern technology to communicate with all my top team to lead the national fight back against coronavirus.’

North Yorkshire: Sgt Paul Cording from North Yorkshire Police conducts a road check to convey the government's "stay-at-home" message, in Harrogate

North Yorkshire: Sgt Paul Cording from North Yorkshire Police conducts a road check to convey the government’s ‘stay-at-home’ message, in Harrogate

Peak District: Derbyshire Police issue a warning to two walkers near Mam Tor in the Peak District this morning

London: A police officer speaks to a couple sat at a bench in the sunshine in Greenwich Park

London: A police officer speaks to a couple sat at a bench in the sunshine in Greenwich Park

Downing Street has previously said that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will fill in if the PM is incapacitated, although there is little sign that he has stopped working.

A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘After experiencing mild symptoms yesterday, the Prime Minister was tested for coronavirus on the personal advice of England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty.

‘The test was carried out in No10 by NHS staff and the result of the test was positive.

‘In keeping with the guidance, the Prime Minister is self-isolating in Downing Street.

‘He is continuing to lead the government’s response to coronavirus.’

The PM’s spokesman said he would be carry out ‘all of the same functions he was performing before’ and ‘the only difference is he will now have to do that via teleconferencing’.

Mr Johnson’s diagnosis was confirmed around midnight last night.

Mr Hancock said in a video message recorded at his home that he would be self-isolating until next Thursday.

‘Fortunately for me the symptoms so far have been very mild so I’ve been able to carry on with the work driving forward the UK response.

He also said a ‘massive thank you to everybody in the NHS, working in social care and right across the board on the response’.

‘I’ll be continuing to do everything I can to get our carers the support that they need. And I’ll be doing that from here but with no less gusto.’

‘And then from next Thursday, once I’m out of self-isolation and I hope with no more symptoms, then I’ll be able to get back stuck in and into the office where necessary.

Dr Habib Zaidi, 76, (pictured) fell ill on Tuesday and died in intensive care at Southend Hospital in Essex on Wednesday

Dr Habib Zaidi, 76, (pictured) fell ill on Tuesday and died in intensive care at Southend Hospital in Essex on Wednesday

Dr Zaidi's wife Dr Talat Zaidi helps manage their Eastwood Group Practice in Leigh-on-Sea

Their daughter Dr Sarah Zaidi is also a family GP

Dr Zaidi’s entire immediate family work in the medical profession. His wife Dr Talat Zaidi (left) helps manage their Eastwood Group Practice in Leigh-on-Sea and one of their daughters Dr Sarah Zaidi (right) is also a family GP 

AWARD-WINNING GP, 76, IS ‘FIRST BRITISH DOCTOR TO DIE OF CORONAVIRUS’  

A family GP who died in hospital on Wednesday is believed to be the first British doctor to fall victim to coronavirus.

Dr Habib Zaidi, 76, became ill on Tuesday and died in intensive care at Southend Hospital in Essex on Wednesday. He had been self-isolating at home and had not seen patients in a week.

His COVID-19 test results have not come back yet, but his daughter Dr Sarah Zaidi, who is also a GP, says he suffered all the ‘textbook symptoms’ of the virus and said his death was the ultimate ‘sacrifice’ for helping fight the deadly infection.

The beloved grandfather was described by a colleague as the ‘father of the medical community’ who served three generations of families in the Southend area for 49 years.

His daughter Sarah told BBC: ‘For that to be the thing that took him is too much to bear. It is reflective of his sacrifice. He had a vocational attitude to service.

‘He was treated as a definitive case. There is little clinical doubt it is coronavirus, the test result is academic.’

‘But the truth is that all of us can learn that working from home can be really, really effective.’

London is regarded as the engine of the outbreak in the UK, and many at Westminster have been struck down with symptoms.

Health minister Nadine Dorries was the first confirmed MP case, and has since recovered and returned to work.

Prince Charles was confirmed as infected with coronavirus earlier this week.

The declared UK death toll rose by 113 to 578 yesterday – the steepest increase yet.

Mr Johnson was outside No10 last night alonside Mr Sunak applauding NHS workers who are combating the virus, in a national show of appreciation.

His spokesman said he thought it was ‘important’ to take part in NHS clap, and he stayed a ‘very significant distance from the Chancellor’.

He chaired a remote meeting of the coronavirus ‘war cabinet’ this morning.

Mr Johnson took PMQs in the Commons on Wednesday, which could raise fears other politicians have been infected, even though people have been well spaced out in the chamber.

Cabinet on Tuesday was also carried out over video conference.

However, senior officials including Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill were close to the PM in Downing Street for the meeting.

Health care officials hope the new 4,000 temporary hospital will help take the strain off existing hospitals which are dealing with an influx of new patients due to coronavirus

Health care officials hope the new 4,000 temporary hospital will help take the strain off existing hospitals which are dealing with an influx of new patients due to coronavirus

Military planners are working with Health Service officials to create the new hospital from scratch to accommodate rising numbers of patients. Pictured a lorry brings in beds for the new temporary hospital at the ExCel centre

Military planners are working with Health Service officials to create the new hospital from scratch to accommodate rising numbers of patients. Pictured a lorry brings in beds for the new temporary hospital at the ExCel centre

Military personnel move supplies at the ExCel centre in London which is being made into a temporary hospital - the NHS Nightingale hospital

Military personnel move supplies at the ExCel centre in London which is being made into a temporary hospital – the NHS Nightingale hospital

Downing Street said the advice to staff is they don’t need to do anything unless they suspect they have symptoms, and then they should follow isolation guidance.

NURSES FROM ACROSS THE UK WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO LONDON HOSPITALS TO CARE FOR THE CAPITAL’S ‘TSUNAMI’ OF PATIENTS 

NHS nurses are to be sent to London from all over the UK as the capital is set to be struck by a ‘tsunami’ of coronavirus cases in the coming weeks and British pandemic-related deaths reached 115-a-day.

The move comes as part of a package of measures in which the NHS will ask doctors to sleep on site for six weeks at the new Nightingale Hospital in the capital’s ExCel conference centre.

Nurses will be transferred from other parts of England to London as the number of Covid-19 patients is expected to rise within days, the Guardian reported.

Chris Hopson, NHS Providers’ chief executive, said London hospitals are struggling with an ‘explosion in demand’.

He said: ‘They are saying it’s the number arriving and the speed with which they are arriving and how ill they are. They talk about wave after wave after wave. The words that are used to me as that it’s a continuous tsunami.’

He said: ‘They are saying it’s the number arriving and the speed with which they are arriving and how ill they are. They talk about wave after wave after wave. The words that are used to me as that it’s a continuous tsunami.’ 

In response, doctors warned the temporary relaxation of the number of patients an ICU nurse can treat will lower care standards.

A lack of ventilators means planners will also explore if the live-saving equipment may be able to support two patients at once.

Regional chief nurses have been asked to spare their staff to battle the pandemic in London, which is expected to peak early next month.

This unprecedented plans come as an NHS official said the health service faced an ‘extreme surge’ of seriously ill COVID-19 sufferers. The number of deaths rose to 584 yesterday, an increase of 119 in 24 hours.

Asked if Chancellor or other senior people have been tested, the PM’s spokesman said: ‘I am not aware of any further testing.’

‘Here in Number 10 we have been observing the advice on social distancing,’ the spokesman said.

Meals or work will be left for the PM in No11, with officials knocking on the door and then ‘safely departing’.

Mr Johnson has not taken any of the regular government press conferences this week.

His audience with the Queen, aged 93, was conducted by telephone. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: ‘Her Majesty the Queen remains in good health. The Queen last saw the Prime Minister on the 11th March and is following all the appropriate advice with regards to her welfare.’

On Monday he gave a dramatic address to the nation in which he declared that the country had to go into lockdown, with no-one leaving their houses unless absolutely necessary,

Mr Johnson’s fiancee Carrie Symonds is pregnant and is thought to have been self-isolating in line with government advice.

Ms Symonds, 32, who is believed to be six months pregnant with the baby due in the early summer, was last seen in Downing Street over the weekend and is likely to have left to protect herself.

She now faces an anxious wait to see if she has been exposed to coronavirus, with pregnant women are more likely to catch an infection than women who are not pregnant. 

Meanwhile scientists have warned seven thousand people could still die of the coronavirus in the UK even though the country is in lockdown.

A paper by Imperial College London has predicted that if the country follows the same trajectory as China did, it could see between 4,700 and 7,100 deaths.

And the peak of the outbreak, which could see between 210 and 330 people die in a single day, could happen next Sunday on April 5, it predicted.

The study estimated that the true death figure would be around 5,700 – the figure is considerably lower than the 20,000 warned about in the doomsday scenario paper which convinced the Government to tighten up its efforts to stop the virus

That claim, published by Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the Government’s leading COVID-19 advisers, warned that tens of thousands could die if people weren’t forced to stay at home.

A new projection from the same university, developed by engineer Professor Tom Pike, compared eight countries’ death rates to China’s after Beijing put the nation into shutdown.

It showed that up to 41,000 people could still die in the US, 60,000 in Spain, 32,000 in Italy and 23,000 in France.

It comes after another paper this week said countries around the world have averted disaster by sending their citizens into lockdown and that 40million could have died if they hadn’t.

More than a billion people worldwide are now in some form of lockdown as the number of confirmed coronavirus patients has soared past 500,000 – but the dramatic measures are saving millions of lives, said another study from Imperial.

It said that almost the entire world population – seven billion citizens – could have been infected if the virus was allowed to spread unchecked.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS?

What is the coronavirus? 

A coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. Viruses break into cells inside their host and use them to reproduce itself and disrupt the body’s normal functions. Coronaviruses are named after the Latin word ‘corona’, which means crown, because they are encased by a spiked shell which resembles a royal crown.

The coronavirus from Wuhan is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. It has been named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The name stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2.

Experts say the bug, which has killed around one in 50 patients since the outbreak began in December, is a ‘sister’ of the SARS illness which hit China in 2002, so has been named after it.

The disease that the virus causes has been named COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019.

Dr Helena Maier, from the Pirbright Institute, said: ‘Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that infect a wide range of different species including humans, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and wild animals. 

‘Until this new coronavirus was identified, there were only six different coronaviruses known to infect humans. Four of these cause a mild common cold-type illness, but since 2002 there has been the emergence of two new coronaviruses that can infect humans and result in more severe disease (Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses). 

‘Coronaviruses are known to be able to occasionally jump from one species to another and that is what happened in the case of SARS, MERS and the new coronavirus. The animal origin of the new coronavirus is not yet known.’ 

The first human cases were publicly reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where approximately 11million people live, after medics first started publicly reporting infections on December 31.

By January 8, 59 suspected cases had been reported and seven people were in critical condition. Tests were developed for the new virus and recorded cases started to surge.

The first person died that week and, by January 16, two were dead and 41 cases were confirmed. The next day, scientists predicted that 1,700 people had become infected, possibly up to 7,000. 

Where does the virus come from?

According to scientists, the virus almost certainly came from bats. Coronaviruses in general tend to originate in animals – the similar SARS and MERS viruses are believed to have originated in civet cats and camels, respectively.

The first cases of COVID-19 came from people visiting or working in a live animal market in Wuhan, which has since been closed down for investigation.

Although the market is officially a seafood market, other dead and living animals were being sold there, including wolf cubs, salamanders, snakes, peacocks, porcupines and camel meat. 

A study by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, published in February 2020 in the scientific journal Nature, found that the genetic make-up virus samples found in patients in China is 96 per cent identical to a coronavirus they found in bats.

However, there were not many bats at the market so scientists say it was likely there was an animal which acted as a middle-man, contracting it from a bat before then transmitting it to a human. It has not yet been confirmed what type of animal this was.

Dr Michael Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, was not involved with the research but said: ‘The discovery definitely places the origin of nCoV in bats in China.

‘We still do not know whether another species served as an intermediate host to amplify the virus, and possibly even to bring it to the market, nor what species that host might have been.’  

So far the fatalities are quite low. Why are health experts so worried about it? 

Experts say the international community is concerned about the virus because so little is known about it and it appears to be spreading quickly.

It is similar to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 in an outbreak in Asia in 2003, in that it is a type of coronavirus which infects humans’ lungs. It is less deadly than SARS, however, which killed around one in 10 people, compared to approximately one in 50 for COVID-19.

Another reason for concern is that nobody has any immunity to the virus because they’ve never encountered it before. This means it may be able to cause more damage than viruses we come across often, like the flu or common cold.

Speaking at a briefing in January, Oxford University professor, Dr Peter Horby, said: ‘Novel viruses can spread much faster through the population than viruses which circulate all the time because we have no immunity to them.

‘Most seasonal flu viruses have a case fatality rate of less than one in 1,000 people. Here we’re talking about a virus where we don’t understand fully the severity spectrum but it’s possible the case fatality rate could be as high as two per cent.’

If the death rate is truly two per cent, that means two out of every 100 patients who get it will die. 

‘My feeling is it’s lower,’ Dr Horby added. ‘We’re probably missing this iceberg of milder cases. But that’s the current circumstance we’re in.

‘Two per cent case fatality rate is comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 so it is a significant concern globally.’

How does the virus spread?

The illness can spread between people just through coughs and sneezes, making it an extremely contagious infection. And it may also spread even before someone has symptoms.

It is believed to travel in the saliva and even through water in the eyes, therefore close contact, kissing, and sharing cutlery or utensils are all risky. It can also live on surfaces, such as plastic and steel, for up to 72 hours, meaning people can catch it by touching contaminated surfaces.

Originally, people were thought to be catching it from a live animal market in Wuhan city. But cases soon began to emerge in people who had never been there, which forced medics to realise it was spreading from person to person. 

What does the virus do to you? What are the symptoms?

Once someone has caught the COVID-19 virus it may take between two and 14 days, or even longer, for them to show any symptoms – but they may still be contagious during this time.

If and when they do become ill, typical signs include a runny nose, a cough, sore throat and a fever (high temperature). The vast majority of patients will recover from these without any issues, and many will need no medical help at all.

In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people.

Figures are showing that young children do not seem to be particularly badly affected by the virus, which they say is peculiar considering their susceptibility to flu, but it is not clear why. 

What have genetic tests revealed about the virus? 

Scientists in China have recorded the genetic sequences of around 19 strains of the virus and released them to experts working around the world. 

This allows others to study them, develop tests and potentially look into treating the illness they cause.   

Examinations have revealed the coronavirus did not change much – changing is known as mutating – much during the early stages of its spread.

However, the director-general of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, said the virus was mutating and adapting as it spread through people.

This means efforts to study the virus and to potentially control it may be made extra difficult because the virus might look different every time scientists analyse it.   

More study may be able to reveal whether the virus first infected a small number of people then change and spread from them, or whether there were various versions of the virus coming from animals which have developed separately.

How dangerous is the virus?  

The virus has a death rate of around two per cent. This is a similar death rate to the Spanish Flu outbreak which, in 1918, went on to kill around 50million people.

Experts have been conflicted since the beginning of the outbreak about whether the true number of people who are infected is significantly higher than the official numbers of recorded cases. Some people are expected to have such mild symptoms that they never even realise they are ill unless they’re tested, so only the more serious cases get discovered, making the death toll seem higher than it really is.

However, an investigation into government surveillance in China said it had found no reason to believe this was true.

Dr Bruce Aylward, a World Health Organization official who went on a mission to China, said there was no evidence that figures were only showing the tip of the iceberg, and said recording appeared to be accurate, Stat News reported.

Can the virus be cured? 

The COVID-19 virus cannot be cured and it is proving difficult to contain.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so they are out of the question. Antiviral drugs can work, but the process of understanding a virus then developing and producing drugs to treat it would take years and huge amounts of money.

No vaccine exists for the coronavirus yet and it’s not likely one will be developed in time to be of any use in this outbreak, for similar reasons to the above.

The National Institutes of Health in the US, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, say they are working on a vaccine based on what they know about coronaviruses in general, using information from the SARS outbreak. But this may take a year or more to develop, according to Pharmaceutical Technology.

Currently, governments and health authorities are working to contain the virus and to care for patients who are sick and stop them infecting other people.

People who catch the illness are being quarantined in hospitals, where their symptoms can be treated and they will be away from the uninfected public.

And airports around the world are putting in place screening measures such as having doctors on-site, taking people’s temperatures to check for fevers and using thermal screening to spot those who might be ill (infection causes a raised temperature).

However, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so there is only a small likelihood that patients will be spotted up in an airport.

Is this outbreak an epidemic or a pandemic?   

The outbreak was declared a pandemic on March 11. A pandemic is defined by the World Health Organization as the ‘worldwide spread of a new disease’. 

Previously, the UN agency said most cases outside of Hubei had been ‘spillover’ from the epicentre, so the disease wasn’t actually spreading actively around the world.

 



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.