Government insists NHS 'has what it needs' to manage coronavirus as health officials hunt for source of UK-infected case

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Stephanie Cockroft29 February 2020

The Government has insisted that the NHS "has what it needs" to manage the coronavirus outbreak as health officials continue to hunt for the source of the UK-infected case.

Health Minister Edward Argar said the health service has "long standing plans" to deal with an increase in hospital admissions and that there is "no reason to think that we shouldn’t be able to continue containing it".

His comments came as health officials were trying to find out how a man, who lives in Surrey, was diagnosed with the virus - the 20th British person to test positive, but the first to contract it in the UK.

Public Health England is tracing anyone who has been in contact with the patient. England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said it was not clear whether the patient had contracted it "directly or indirectly" from someone who had recently returned from abroad.

Coronavirus has wiped more than £200 billion off shares on the FTSE 100 this week 
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The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the original source of the virus was “unclear”, adding that there was no “immediately identifiable link” to overseas travel.

Mr Argar told BBC Radio 4's Today: “We’re still in the containment phase of this disease. We have been pretty good at containing it thus far.

"And the chief medical officer has been very clear that there is no reason to think that we shouldn’t be able to continue containing it, so that’s what our focus is on.”

A sign at Haslemere Health Centre in Surrey
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Mr Argar refused to comment on reports that the Surrey man had also passed it on to their doctor.

Haslemere Health Centre in the county was closed on Friday, with a statement on its website saying: “The surgery is temporarily closed today to enable a clean of the surgery as a routine precautionary measure. The practice will reopen on Saturday and patients will be advised if their appointment needs to be rearranged.”

“I’m aware of the report, but I’m going on the basis of what I’ve been told,” he told the BBC.

“I haven’t had any details of that and I think it would be wrong to comment on speculation in the press without that detailed advice from the chief medical officer."

He added: “It is a new development but the chief medical officer has also said we are still doing the contact tracing around that and we are still looking into the details of that case, so it is probably a bit premature to say more than that at the moment.”

Talking to Sky, Mr Argar that he was "confident the NHS has what it needs to manage" the Covid-19 outbreak and the NHS "has long standing plans to handle and to cope with any increase in hospital admissions".

The new case takes the total number of cases in England up to 18, while there has been one confirmed case in Northern Ireland and one in Wales.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, said on Twitter he was thinking of “clinicians, staff and patients” at the surgery during this “worrying time”.

People wearing face masks in Trafalgar Square in London
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He added: “Thoughts today with new Covid19 patient and local GP with symptoms alongside their families.”

Meanwhile, a British man, reported to be in his 70s and said to have lived abroad, was confirmed as the first UK citizen to die from coronavirus .

The man, who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship which has been quarantined off Japan’s coast amid the outbreak, was the sixth person from the vessel to have died.

David Abel and his wife Sally were both on board the ship, where more than 700 tourists became infected, and are now undergoing treatment for the virus in hospital.

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Mr Abel said in a YouTube video: “Sad news this morning, wasn’t it? We awakened to that, to hear that one of the Brits has sadly passed away in hospital out here in Japan.

“Our thoughts, our concern is for all of the families left behind. We are fortunate, we’re doing OK, we’re being really, really well cared for.”

The developments came as the Government prepares to bring in new emergency powers to help stop the spread of Covid-19, which will aim to give schools, councils and other parts of the public sector powers to suspend laws – including health and safety measures – to cope with a pandemic.

Teachers and nursery workers will be allowed to have larger classes to cope with staff absences under the laws, which are due to be introduced next week.

Elsewhere, the UK’s leading index of companies saw its sharpest weekly fall since the middle of the financial crisis as markets lost 3.2 per cent on Friday.

The bloodbath that has gripped markets for days continued, wiping more than £200 billion off shares on the FTSE 100 this week, as traders panicked over the spread of coronavirus.

It includes a major drop on Friday , with the index losing 215.79 points to 6,580.61 as the blue chip index posted its worst week since October 2008, the depths of the financial crisis.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the coronavirus was “now the Government’s top priority” as critics accused him of failing to take a lead on the UK response. He is set to hold a Cobra meeting on the issue on Monday.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr Johnson said: “On the issue of coronavirus, which obviously is a great concern to people, I just want to reassure everybody and say that the NHS is making every possible preparation.

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“As you can imagine, the issue of coronavirus is something that is now the Government’s top priority.”

Health Minister Helen Whately said it was “likely” more people in the UK would contract coronavirus and that plans were in place should it become a pandemic.

The Conservative MP told BBC Newsnight: “I can’t reiterate enough that we are well prepared but we do have to recognise that it is likely we will see more cases in the UK.

“We have plans in place and have carried out exercises so in the event of something like a ‘flu pandemic, we are ready.”​

Globally, the list of countries touched by the illness has climbed to nearly 60 as Mexico, Belarus, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Iceland and the Netherlands reported their first cases.

More than 84,000 people worldwide have contracted the illness, with deaths topping 2,800.

China, where the outbreak began in December, has seen a slowdown in new infections and on Saturday morning reported 427 new cases over the past 24 hours along with 47 additional deaths. The city at the epicentre of the outbreak, Wuhan, accounted for the bulk of both.

South Korea, the second hardest hit country, reported 813 new cases on Saturday — the highest daily jump since confirming its first patient in late January – raising its total to 3,150.

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