Coronavirus: UK cases hit 115 as ‘significant spread highly likely’

The number of coronavirus cases in the UK has reached 115 as Downing Street warned a “significant” spread is “highly likely”.

The number had stood at 85 following the Department of Health update on Wednesday afternoon.

Here is where the new cases are:

• Three new cases had already been confirmed in Scotland today
• Twenty-five of the new cases are in England – including eight people who contracted the virus in the UK
• The DoH has confirmed there are now 25 cases in London
• Liverpool City Council says two of the new cases are within the city, including one person who was a known contact of an existing patient and another who recently returned from Italy
• Wales’ chief medical officer says a second patient has been identified in the country and is not believed to be linked to the first Welsh patient. They had recently travelled to Italy
• The first known case of coronavirus has been confirmed in South Yorkshire, after a patient tested positive for the virus in Rotherham
• A Cornwall resident has tested positive for the virus after returning from northern Italy

The prime minister’s spokesperson said: “We will continue to try to contain this virus. However it’s now highly likely that the virus is going to spread in a significant way.

“Officials will therefore accelerate work on preparations for the delay phase of the government’s plan focusing on steps we can take to seek to delay the spread of the virus.

“This will include detailed work on the optimum time to introduce further measures.”

It comes as England’s chief medical officer told MPs the UK is now in the second phase of its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Professor Chris Whitty said Britain was “mainly” in the “delay” phase of the government’s four-stage approach to COVID-19.

But he said he was expecting the number of UK cases to go up over the coming weeks due to evidence of “some level of community transmission”.

HSBC has evacuated its entire research department and parts of its trading floor at its Canary Wharf offices after a member of staff tested positive for coronavirus.

Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr Catherine Calderwood, said the new Scottish patients are from the Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, and Grampian areas.

All of them tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, after coming into contact with others who already had the virus.

It brings the total number of confirmed cases in Scotland to six.

Dr Calderwood said: “Clinicians are now conducting contact tracing, the process of gathering details of the places those who have tested positive visited and the people they have been in contact with.”

She said close contact involves either face-to-face contact or spending more than 15 minutes within two metres of an infected person.

The risk is very low in situations where someone may have passed a patient on the street or in a shop, she added.

On Wednesday, 36 new patients in the UK were confirmed to have tested positive – 32 in England, two in Scotland and two in Northern Ireland.

The Department of Health said three of the new cases in England contracted the virus in the UK, raising fears that community transmission may now be taking hold.

In its 27-page plan to deal with a major outbreak, the government has said up to one in five workers could be off sick during a peak in coronavirus cases.

In a worst case scenario, it said up to 80% of the population could become infected, with people hospitalised with pneumonia and a relatively high death rate among the elderly and frail.

In other developments:

• Flybe collapses amid a steep fall in bookings due to the coronavirus outbreak
• England’s Six Nations game against Italy in Rome on 14 March has been postponed
• The coronavirus death toll in the worst-affected Italian region of Lombardy has risen to 98 from 73 the day before, according to officials
• HSBC has evacuated its entire research department and parts of its trading floor at its Canary Wharf offices after a member of staff tested positive for coronavirus
• Italy shuts down all schools and universities until 15 March and confirms 107 people have now died from the virus
• Switzerland reports its first coronavirus death
• Bedelsford School in Kingston has become the latest school to close for deep cleaning as a precaution after a staff member was tested for coronavirus following a trip abroad
• The Church of the Nativity in the biblical city of Bethlehem has closed indefinitely over COVID-19 fears, according to Palestinian authorities.
• There are than 95,700 confirmed and suspected cases globally, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the outbreak. It says there have been more than 3,280 deaths

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Meanwhile, the government has launched an advertising campaign – featuring across print, radio, online, and billboards – in the fight against COVID-19.

Hand-washing remains the central advice – but the government has also said it would consider closing schools, encourage working from home and the reduction of large-scale gatherings to slow the spread of the disease.

People should wash their hands for 20 seconds and use soap and water or hand sanitiser.

The adverts also stress the importance of coughing or sneezing into tissues.

There is no vaccine yet for the new viral infection, which health officials think spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

The symptoms include fever, coughing and difficulty breathing.

Virus Outbreak: Global Emergency – Watch a special Sky News programme on coronavirus at 6pm weekdays

(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: UK cases hit 115 as ‘significant spread highly likely’