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The two relatives who have tested positive for the killer coronavirus are Chinese tourists who were staying in a budget hotel in York when they came down with the world’s most feared illness, it was revealed today.
The British Government is scrambling to find anyone who came into contact with the two patients who landed in the UK three days ago and were staying at the £49-a-night StayCity hotel, next door to the Barbican Theatre and as short walk from the world-famous minster.
But the Department of Health is refusing to give any details about the tourists citing ‘patient confidentially’ and have knocked back questions about where and when the Chinese tourists entered Britain and where they have been before arriving in York.
The two family members have been rushed into quarantine at a specialist unit in Newcastle-upon-Tyne but there are fears anyone in their tourist group from China could be infected – or anyone else who stayed in the 220-room city centre hotel that can house 500 people each night if full.
And extraordinarily the hotel appears to have remained open since a Chinese man fell ill at 8pm on Wednesday hours before a relative came down with flu-like symptoms hours later – despite Coronavirus now being declared global health emergency by the World Health Organisation, claiming at least 213 lives and 10,000 now infected worldwide.
Bosses have ‘cordoned off’ their apartment where the Chinese family stayed including their belongings – and ‘surrounding rooms’ within the hotel – but it is understood the rest of the building has remained open and a room can still be booked for tonight for just £75 online.
The two coronavirus patients are now in Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, which is one of only four NHS facilities in the country which is equipped to deal with infectious patients like this, having been on standby in the 2003 SARS crisis and the Ebola crisis between 2014 and 2016.
They did not fly back to the UK on the Government’s evacuation flight, which landed at RAF Brize Nortoin in Oxfordshire this afternoon.
Asian tourists wearing face masks leave the Staycity Hotel in the centre of York where two family members from China fell ill with Coronavirus
The 220-room Staycity Hotel in the centre of York – a short walk from the Minster – is still open today with only the rooms in the area where the Chinese relatives fell ill cordoned off
British Nationals arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on a rescue flight from Wuhan where people face two weeks in quarantine
Ambulance workers and military are pictured at RAF Brize Norton, awaiting the arrival of 83 British people from China
Medics head to toe in white protective overalls and gas masks were filmed marching a patient through student university halls in London last night, in one of the country’s various coronavirus scares
A blurry Snapchat photo showed hazmat-clad workers at the University of Bristol yesterday in one of England’s coronavirus scares
Ambulance crews arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire this morning in preparation for an evacuation flight which is bringing people back from China
Staff at Arrowe Park Hospital are reportedly furious that the Government didn’t tell anyone that the evacuees would be taken there and kept in quarantine for two weeks
Evacuees from China will later today be taken to these accommodation buildings at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside
Two patients are believed to be in the care of specialist medics at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, which is one of only four hospitals in the country equipped to deal with the patients
Almost 10,000 people in 24 countries and territories have now been diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus and 213 people have died, all in Chin
A total of 190 people have tested negative for the virus in the UK and two have now tested positive. The confirmed infections make England the 23rd country or territory outside of China to declare cases.
The Government is still trying to track down 600 people who travelled from Wuhan to the UK between January 10 and 24 – of 1,466 total passengers, 162 have left the UK and 760 are now outside of the two-week danger zone.
The sick patients are believed to be at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, which is one of only four NHS facilities in the country which is equipped to deal with infectious patients like this.
Unconfirmed reports are now emerging that they may have been staying at the StayCity York hotel, where there was a scare yesterday and a room was cordoned off after a man was reportedly taken away in an ambulance by medics in full quarantine uniform.
The Department of Health has refused to reveal the ages or nationalities of the patients, or any details of how long they have been in the UK or where they had stayed before becoming ill, because of ‘patient confidentiality’.
By comparison, when France, Germany and the US declared their first cases, their governments revealed the patients’ ages, nationalities and their connections to China.
The scarcity of official information stirred panic among workers at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, where passengers on a China evacuation flight will be taken later today, with staff reportedly finding out about the quarantine on the news rather than from their bosses.
Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England said in a statement this morning: ‘We can confirm that two patients in England, who are members of the same family, have tested positive for coronavirus.
‘The patients are receiving specialist NHS care, and we are using tried and tested infection control procedures to prevent further spread of the virus.
‘The NHS is extremely well-prepared and used to managing infections and we are already working rapidly to identify any contacts the patients had, to prevent further spread.
‘We have been preparing for UK cases of novel coronavirus and we have robust infection control measures in place to respond immediately.
‘We are continuing to work closely with the World Health Organization and the international community as the outbreak in China develops to ensure we are ready for all eventualities.’
The confirmation comes just hours before an evacuation flight which left China last night is expected to land at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
Scientists had been expecting a case to be diagnosed here for more than a week, since it became clear how widely the virus was spreading.
Evacuees heading back to the UK from China today will land at RAF Brize Norton before being taken by bus to the Wirral, where they will be kept in isolation for two weeks
A fleet of coaches is pictured arriving at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire today. The buses will carry 83 British passengers to an NHS facility in Wirral, Merseyside
A French military plane is pictured coming in to land at at air base near Istres carrying evacuees from Wuhan who will be put in a two-week quarantine
The German air force is seen taking of from Cologne en route to evacuate citizens from Wuhan, China
Wirral Council today issued a statement on Twitter to its residents confirming Arrowe Park Hospital would be operating as normal and the people flown home from Wuhan will be kept in a separate building to the inpatient wards
The rate of deaths because of coronavirus is increasing as it reached 213 – and the rate of cases is also rising sharply
Professor Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: ‘The report of the first two cases diagnosed positive for 2019-nCoV in the UK is not surprising and was almost inevitable.’
Nathalie MacDermott, a Kings College London lecturer told Sky News: ‘I think this is to be expected.
‘We’ve been expecting it for the last week or so at least. To some degree, a little bit of a surprise that it’s only happened now given the spread of cases overseas from China over the last two weeks.’
More cases may emerge in the coming days and weeks as more people return from China.
A total of 83 British citizens are on board under the guard of Army medics and RAF personnel and will be taken by bus to Wirral, Merseyside to be quarantined.
They have flown home after the Government rustled together an evacuation flight yesterday for people trapped in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak.
The patients will all have had medical testing before boarding the plane and any who showed signs of sickness would have been turned away at the airport and left in China.
It is understood that nobody who arrived at the airport with a seat booked was turned away because of their health.
England’s deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries said: ‘Everybody who has got on the plane is a well passenger.
‘If any of those passengers do show symptoms there are set procedures to isolate them during any process and remove them in any part of the journey.’
But there remains a possibility that passengers on the flight, who include holidaymakers and expats who were living in China, are infected with the virus.
It can take up to two weeks, or potentially more, for symptoms to appear so people may not know they are infected.
For this reason, the passengers will all be isolated in an accommodation apartment building at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside.
Staff at the hospital are reportedly furious that they weren’t told this would be happening, with many only finding out on the news rather than from their bosses.
Two Labour MPs from Wirral, Angela Eagle and Alison McGovern both said on Twitter that they had not been told either.
One unnamed nurse at Arrowe Park told the Liverpool Echo: ‘Most staff heard it on the news first which is terrible, panic is the word I would use. At least warn your staff before the news. The Wirral population are worried also.’
Jane Godman, from the Wirral, wrote on Twitter, ‘Decision to have a coronavirus quarantine centre at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral is bizarre.
‘One of the busiest hospitals in the North West, with a maternity unit, in a built up area, 170 miles from where the Wuhan plane lands. Who decided this and why?’
The confirmed cases come after recent days have seen coronavirus scares around the UK with video and pictures emerging of hazmat-clad medical workers in London, Bristol and Hertfordshire.
New Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Hertfordshire was last night evacuated in an infection scare.
In a video clip a hospital worker can be heard telling patients: ‘It’s highly unlikely, but the people who do actually test positive in any way, we can contact you in advance of anything going on.’
And on Wednesday night, an apartment-hotel in Yorkshire was put on lockdown when a man, understood to be a Chinese national, was taken to hospital after falling ill.
The man, who was a guest at the Staycity Hotel in the centre of York, was taken to hospital, together with family members, by medics.
Someone who is infected with the Wuhan coronavirus, which has infected almost 10,000 people across the world, can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze, scientists say
Coaches arrive this morning to collect passengers who have been flown back to the UK from China by RAF personnel and Army medics
Britons Patrick Graham (left) and Ben Kavanagh (right) were among the more than 100 passengers on the UK’s repatriation flight out of Wuhan last night
In this image from the evacuation flight for Britons coming home from Wuhan, China, last night, passengers can be seen wrapped up warm in coats could then be seen presenting their passports ready to board the flight home
People were seen wearing hazmat suits at the University of Bristol yesterday, but the university has now confirmed no-one there has been diagnosed
Medics dressed head-to-toe in white protective overalls and gas masks were this week filmed marching a patient through student university accommodation in London.
The University of Bristol also confirmed a student with ‘flu-like symptoms’ has been taken to hospital as a precaution.
A statement issued today, however, confirmed they were not diagnosed.
A spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that the student taken to hospital last night has now been discharged and there was no diagnosis of coronavirus.
‘We are continuing to support the student, and remind staff and students of the advice from Public Health England.’
And a British Airways plane from Hong Kong was yesterday locked down after landing at Heathrow and passengers prevented from getting off after two travellers complained of feeling unwell.
Hazmat-clad paramedics were filmed escorting a woman wearing a surgical face mask out of the halls at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) at around 9pm on Wednesday.
The woman is thought to have been a Chinese student studying at the university in Holborn.
On the BA flight doors were kept sealed and passengers were prevented from getting off when it landed at 5am after two travellers complained of feeling unwell.
Panicked passengers were reportedly told ‘this is how disasters happen’ and forced to fill out questionnaires about their health and travel history.
The plane remained on lockdown on the runway for more than 45 minutes before the passengers and crew were allowed to disembark.
MailOnline saw one of the questionnaires which quizzed passengers about recent travel history, who they had flown with and their current health.
They were also forced to sign a form confirming they are ‘currently well and do not have any of the following symptoms – fever, shortness of breath, cough, sore throat, runny nose.’
The UK Government’s chartered flight is currently over Europe and is expected to land in Oxfordshire at around 1pm today, where it will be met by a fleet of coaches.
A plane was chartered from the Spanish airline Wamos and it’s carrying 83 British citizens and 27 foreign nationals, mostly from Spain. The European patients will be taken to a hospital in Madrid.
The flight left China at 9.45am local time (1.45am UK time) after all passengers had their temperatures taken and were quizzed about their health. They will be under constant monitoring for the next two weeks.
Planning of the evacuation caused uproar yesterday when it emerged the Foreign Office only gave British citizens with a seat on the plane two hours to get to the airport in a deserted city bigger than London with no taxis or public transport.
One man said he was told at 9pm that he had to be at a meeting point near the airport for 11pm. He could not make the journey in time so has stayed behind in Wuhan.
Anthony May-Smith, who has a job in England and had intended to take just a month off to visit his girlfriend, is now stuck there until another flight is rearranged.
He told MailOnline this morning: ‘I think it’s disgraceful of the UK officials to only give us 2 hours notice, despite telling us we would be given plenty of time to get to the airport.
‘There is still no news from them today as to what will happen in the future. I’ve tried to download the document they sent me last night to be able to board the flight… however, I am unable to do so on my phone or iPad.
Anthony May-Smith told Sky News he had been waiting for days to hear confirmation of the UK evacuation flight but has had to stay in Wuhan because the Government only gave him two hours to get to the airport
Out of 200 people expected to be on the flight, there were just 83 British citizens who made the final cut. It is unknown whether anyone was turned away because they appeared to be ill.
Those who did make it are expected to be screened again when they land and then dispersed onto a fleet of seven coaches hired from Reading coach firm, Horseman.
The coaches are being driven by drivers employed by the company, all of whom agreed to do the job. The company refused to say whether the drivers would be quarantined afterwards, but said the buses would be ‘deep cleaned’.
The Horseman Coaches spokesman told the PA news agency: ‘The Department for Health have procedures in place for the vehicles to be deep cleaned.
‘That is part of the process of this undertaking, which will happen as soon as the vehicles are clear. I can give everybody assurance that everything will be cleansed sufficiently.’
Horseman Coaches is a private coach hire company operating throughout Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Slough, West Berkshire and across the south east carrying more than 9,000 passengers each day, according to the company’s website.
The website says the company, which has a fleet of 60 coaches, was named UK Coach Operator of the Year 2019.
The drivers will take all of the passengers to accommodation at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside – about a three or four hour drive from Brize Norton.
The group will be housed in a seven-storey NHS staff block with a pool table, TVs and Wi-Fi, as well as access to enclosed outdoor areas.
They will be allowed to work during the quarantine but cannot see visitors in person – they will, however, be allowed to contact family friends. Food and drink will be ordered in.
Two weeks is the maximum incubation period of the illness – the duration between someone becoming infected and showing symptoms.
Should anyone show signs of coronavirus, which include a cough, sore throat or temperature, they will be taken 10 miles to the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital’s infectious diseases unit.
What do we know about the Wuhan coronavirus?
Someone who is infected with the Wuhan coronavirus can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze, scientists say.
At least 213 people with the virus are now confirmed to have died and more than 9,800 have been infected in at least 21 countries and regions. But experts predict the true number of people with the disease could be 100,000, or even as high as 350,000 in Wuhan alone, as they warn it may kill as many as two in 100 cases. Here’s what we know so far:
What is the Wuhan 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 is currently named 2019-nCoV, and does not have a more detailed name because so little is known about it.
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 seeing 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.
Just a week after that, there had been more than 800 confirmed cases and those same scientists estimated that some 4,000 – possibly 9,700 – were infected in Wuhan alone. By that point, 26 people had died.
By January 27, more than 2,800 people were confirmed to have been infected, 81 had died, and estimates of the total number of cases ranged from 100,000 to 350,000 in Wuhan alone.
By January 29, the number of deaths had risen to 132 and cases were in excess of 6,000.
Where does the virus come from?
Nobody knows for sure. 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 the virus in Wuhan came from people visiting or working in a live animal market in the city, 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.
Bats are a prime suspect – researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a recent statement: ‘The Wuhan coronavirus’ natural host could be bats… but between bats and humans there may be an unknown intermediate.’
And another scientific journal article has suggested the virus first infected snakes, which may then have transmitted it to people at the market in Wuhan.
Peking University researchers analysed the genes of the coronavirus and said they most closely matched viruses which are known to affect snakes. They said: ‘Results derived from our evolutionary analysis suggest for the first time that snake is the most probable wildlife animal reservoir for the 2019-nCoV,’ in the Journal of Medical Virology.
Experts say the difficulty of containing the coronavirus is that so many patients have mild, cold-like symptoms and don’t realise they have the infection – but it can quickly turn deadly
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.
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.
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.
There is now evidence that it can spread third hand – to someone from a person who caught it from another person.
What does the virus do to you? What are the symptoms?
Once someone has caught the virus it may take between two and 14 days 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 – at least 97 per cent, based on available data – will recover from these without any issues or medical help.
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.
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, yesterday 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 so far killed 213 people out of a total of at least 9,800 officially confirmed cases – 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.
However, experts say the true number of patients is likely considerably higher and therefore the death rate considerably lower. Imperial College London researchers estimate that there were 4,000 (up to 9,700) cases in Wuhan city alone up to January 18 – officially there were only 444 there to date. If cases are in fact 100 times more common than the official figures, the virus may be far less dangerous than currently believed.
Experts say it is likely only the most seriously ill patients are seeking help and are therefore recorded – the vast majority will have only mild, cold-like symptoms. For those whose conditions do become more severe, there is a risk of developing pneumonia which can destroy the lungs and kill you.
Can the virus be cured?
The Wuhan coronavirus cannot currently 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, 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 has not officially been confirmed as either an epidemic or a pandemic yet. This is likely because, despite the global concern, the number of people who have been confirmed to be infected is still relatively low.
A pandemic is defined by the World Health Organization as the ‘worldwide spread of a new disease’.
An epidemic is when a disease takes hold of a smaller community, such as a single country, region or continent.
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