Children in Cornwall and Cheshire are told to self-isolate after ski trips to the coronavirus-hit Lombardy region of Italy – as three pupils in Devon test negative for the killer disease
- Students at Truro’s Penair School turned up this morning but were sent home
- Lombardy is at the centre of Italy’s outbreak, claiming most of the 280 cases
- Torquay Boys’ Grammar School in Devon also had a ski trip over the half-term
- Three pupils have tested negative for the virus after being told to self-isolate
- More than 80,000 people have caught COVID-19, with the death toll at 2,700
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Coronavirus fears have once again gripped Britain as children from Cornwall and Cheshire have been told to self-isolate after ski trips to Italy.
Students at Truro’s Penair School turned up for classes this morning but were sent home following their excursion to Ponte di Legno in Lombardy.
Cransley School and Brine Leas Academy in Cheshire have also had pupils and staff told to quarantine themselves after two separate ski trips to Italy.
Lombardy has been ravaged by the outbreak, with the majority of Italy’s 280 cases recorded in the northern region, home to Milan.
Three pupils from another school in Britain were also told to quarantine themselves after returning from a ski trip in the coronavirus-hit region.
But the students at Torquay Boys’ Grammar School in Devon have tested negative for the virus, which has swept the world in the last two months.
It comes as the Government today advised all Britons who have come from northern Italy to self-isolate at home if they start to suffer flu-like symptoms.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said those who have been to areas locked down by Italian officials should quarantine themselves even if they don’t feel ill.
The advice also told people to stay at home for two weeks if they have returned from Iran or cities in South Korea battered by the deadly infection.
The dramatic escalation comes as the global number of cases of COVID-19 jumped above 80,000, with more than 2,700 now dead.
Students at Truro’s Penair School turned up for classes this morning but were sent home following their excursion to Ponte di Legno in Lombardy
Three pupils from another school were also told to quarantine themselves after returning from a ski trip in the coronavirus-hit region. But the students at Torquay Boys’ Grammar School in Devon have tested negative for the virus, which has swept the world in the last two months
The following advice applies to people who have travelled back from the named areas since Wednesday, February 19.
- People travelling back from the Italian areas of Castelgerundo, Terranova dei Passerini, Bertonico, San Fiorano, Maleo, Codogno, Somaglia or Fombio should self-isolate for two weeks when they get home and call NHS 111.
- People travelling from anywhere in Italy north of – but not including – Pisa, Florence and Rimini should self-isolate only if they feel ill.
- Anyone returning home from Iran should self-isolate for two weeks and phone NHS 111 – even if they feel healthy.
- Anyone returning from the South Korean cities of Daegu or Cheongdo should self-isolate and phone NHS 111 even if they feel healthy.
- People should self-isolate and phone NHS 111 only if they develop flu-like symptoms after returning from Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar or Laos.
Existing advice, which applies more broadly to at least the past fortnight, says people should follow the self-isolation protocol if they feel ill after coming home from China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau.
Anyone coming home from the Hubei province of China should self-isolate even if they don’t feel ill.
It is unclear how many children from from Penair School have been sent home from school after the five-day ski trip over the half-term.
In a statement posted on Facebook to quash fears, the school told parents: ‘Please be assured this is a precautionary measure.’
It added: ‘We are required to send all children and staff home who attended the ski trip, to self-quarantine for 14 days.’
Pictures posted on the school’s Instagram page suggest around 40 children went on the trip, between February 17-22.
Torquay Boys’ Grammar School offered a ski trip for pupils and staff to Bormio, which is also in the Lombardy region.
It is thought all pupils and staff were advised to stay at home after they returned at the weekend.
Head teacher Peter Lawrence yesterday said the quarantine was just a precautionary move.
He later confirmed the three students concerned had tested negative for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Mr Lawrence added all other students and staff affected by the quarantine could return to school immediately. It is unclear how many others there were.
He added: ‘I appreciate this will have been a time of concern for many of you and am delighted the results have come back so quickly.’
Cransley School in Northwich announced it will be closed for the rest of the week because of coronavirus fears. It will also undergo a deep clean, in a precautionary move to prevent any cases.
A handful of the 34 pupils and staff who went to Bormio for the ski trip began to show flu-like symptoms, the Northwich Guardian reports.
The school has since told the entire group to quarantine themselves, after ringing NHS111 for guidance.
It comes as the Government updated its health travel advice to tell travellers from four other countries to self-isolate if they have symptoms.
The Department of Health said the instruction now applies to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
The same advice was already in place for China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau.
Anyone coming to the UK from Hubei province in China – the epicentre of the crisis – should self-isolate even if they don’t feel ill.
This guidance has now been extended to include people travelling back from Iran, Daegu or Cheongdo in South Korea or the Italian areas of Castelgerundo, Terranova dei Passerini, Bertonico, San Fiorano, Maleo, Codogno, Somaglia or Fombio.
Italy’s sudden outbreak, which surged over the weekend, has gripped around a dozens smaller towns and provinces around Milan (Pictured: Soldiers stand guard at the Duomo di Milano, one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions)
Matt Hancock today told Sky News he was ‘not planning’ on going to northern Italy when he was asked whether he would, but he said it was ‘perfectly reasonable’ to travel to the south
A police roadblock is pictured close to Codogno, the town at the centre of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak
HOW HAS CHINA’S CORONAVIRUS SPREAD OVER TIME?
The vast majority of confirmed infections of the Wuhan coronavirus have been diagnosed in China.
But more than 25 countries or territories outside of the mainland have also declared infections:
- Iraq: February 24
- Oman: February 24
- Bahrain: February 24
- Kuwait: February 24
- Afghanistan: February 24
- Lebanon: February 21
- Israel: February 21
- Iran: February 19
- Egypt: February 14
- Belgium: February 4
- Diamond Princess: February 1
- Spain: January 31
- Sweden: January 31
- Russia: January 31
- UK: January 31
- India: January 30
- Philippines: January 30
- Italy: January 30
- Finland: January 29
- United Arab Emirates: January 29
- Germany: January 27
- Sri Lanka: January 27
- Cambodia: January 27
- Canada: January 25
- Australia: January 25
- Malaysia: January 25
- France: January 24
- Nepal: January 24
- Vietnam: January 24
- Singapore: January 23
- Macau: January 22
- Hong Kong: January 22
- Taiwan: January 21
- USA: January 20
- South Korea: January 20
- Japan: January 16
- Thailand: January 13
Speaking to Sky News this morning Mr Hancock said: ‘We’re saying that those who have been in Northern Italy, if they feel ill [with] flu-like symptoms, then you should self-isolate, stay at home, try not to see other people.
‘If you’ve been to Italy to the areas that are being quarantined by the Italian government then you should stay at home and self-isolate even if you don’t have any symptoms.’
He added that the government doesn’t think there are any Brits in the quarantined area but it cannot be certain.
‘This development in Italy is obviously very worrying because it’s a significant outbreak,’ Mr Hancock said.
‘But throughout this outbreak … we’ve been clear that we expect cases here, so people shouldn’t be surprised that there are cases this close to home, but it just shows how important preparations are.’
When asked whether he would travel to Italy Mr Hancock hesitated and said it would be ‘perfectly reasonable’ to go to the south of the country, but that he is ‘not planning on going’ to the north.
He added: ‘We haven’t changed the official government travel advice but I’m not planning on going.
‘And if people go and then they come back and feel ill with flu-like symptoms then we’re asking them to self-isolate, to stay at home for two weeks and to try not to come into contact with anybody else.
‘That is obviously quite a significant imposition on people. We get that but our top priority is to keep the public safe.’
Italy saw a devastating surge in COVID-19 cases over the weekend, with confirmed infections rocketing from just six on Friday to more than 280 today, and seven people have died.
British tourists last night attacked the Government’s ‘pitiful’ response to the developments, with some saying they were given no safety advice and others feeling forced to cancel trips.
As other countries ramped up warnings not to travel to the Italian crisis zone, Downing Street insisted Britain is ‘well prepared’ for an outbreak.
The country has effectively placed 50,000 citizens in lockdown by shutting off more than a dozen towns close to Milan and cancelling public events.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE DEADLY CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA?
Someone who is infected with the coronavirus can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze, scientists say.
Over 2,700 people with the virus are now confirmed to have died and more than 80,000 have been infected. But experts predict the true number of people with the disease could be as high as 350,000 in Wuhan alone. Here’s what we know so far:
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.
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.
By February 5, there were more than 24,000 cases and 492 deaths.
By February 11, this had risen to more than 43,000 cases and 1,000 deaths.
A change in the way cases are confirmed on February 13 – doctors decided to start using lung scans as a formal diagnosis, as well as laboratory tests – caused a spike in the number of cases, to more than 60,000 and to 1,369 deaths.
By February 25, around 80,000 people had been infected and some 2,700 had died.
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.
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 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 – 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, 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.
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 that date. If cases are in fact 100 times more common than the official figures, the virus may be far less dangerous than currently believed, but also far more widespread.
Experts say it is likely only the most seriously ill patients who 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 them.
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 is an epidemic, which is when a disease takes hold of one community such as a country or region.
Although it has spread to dozens of countries, the outbreak is not yet classed as a pandemic, which is defined by the World Health Organization as the ‘worldwide spread of a new disease’.
The head of WHO’s global infectious hazard preparedness, Dr Sylvie Briand, said: ‘Currently we are not in a pandemic. We are at the phase where it is an epidemic with multiple foci, and we try to extinguish the transmission in each of these foci,’ the Guardian reported.
She said that most cases outside of Hubei had been ‘spillover’ from the epicentre, so the disease wasn’t actually spreading actively around the world.
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