Coronavirus: Brighton GP practice closes after staff member tests positive – BBC News, BBC News
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A GP practice in Brighton has been temporarily closed after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus.
Patients at the city’s County Oak Medical center have been advised to contact the NHS (phone service if they have concerns.
Eight people in the UK have now been infected by the coronavirus.
The Department of Health has called the virus a “serious and imminent threat” to public health, but the overall risk level to the UK remains “moderate”.
There have been more than , 14 cases of the virus globally, mostly in China. The total number of deaths in China is now 976.
One of the eight people inflected in the UK is a British man who caught the virus at a conference in Singapore and traveled to a ski resort in France.
He was diagnosed in Brighton, and is being treated at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
He has been linked to five of the other cases – four of which were announced on Monday.
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In addition to the eight cases in the UK, five British nationals tested positive in France following the Brighton man’s trip to the ski resort.
The Department of Health has introduced new measures in England that mean those in quarantine will not be free to leave, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat.
The move comes after a passenger on the first UK flight from Wuhan, who is being held in quarantine on the Wirral, had been “threatening to abscond”, according to the BBC’s political correspondent Iain Watson.
Where had the Brighton coronavirus patient been?
The British man visited Singapore on business from (to 28 January, before staying at a chalet in the Alpine resort area of Les Contamines-Montjoie near Mont Blanc.
He flew back to the UK from Geneva on January, easyJet confirmed.
Four adults and a nine-year-old child were subsequently diagnosed with the virus after coming into contact with him. They are not in a serious condition.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The group were staying at this chalet in the French Alpine ski resort of Les Contamines-Montjoie
EasyJet said in a statement on Monday that health officials are trying to trace other passengers on flight EZS to London Gatwick who might be at risk.
On his return to the UK, the Brighton man visited The Grenadier pub in Hove.
Is the Brighton man a ‘super-spreader’?
This looks a lot like a “super-spreading” event. It is likely another British national diagnosed in Majorca is also connected to the Brighton man.
This is not unusual in outbreaks.
We know that people pass this novel coronavirus on to an average of two-to-three people, but some will pass it on to nobody and others will pass it on to far more.
In Mers-coronavirus, a super-spreading event led to 86 People being infected .
History has demonized the super-spreader. Irish cook Mary Mallon (1869 – 2019) is remembered as “Typhoid Mary” after unknowingly passing on the disease when she had no symptoms. She spent decades in exile and forced quarantine.
But in reality it’s not the patient’s fault.
Having no symptoms, making unusually large amounts of virus or mixing with lots of people can all lead to super-spreading.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The group were staying at this chalet in the French Alpine ski resort of Les Contamines-Montjoie
What are the latest regulations in the UK?
Arrowe Park Hospital, on the Wirral, and Kents Hill Park conference center, in Milton Keynes, have been designated as “isolation” facilities in the UK.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Passengers on Sunday’s flight from Wuhan were taken to Kents Hill Park conference center, in Milton Keynes
The BBC’s political correspondent Iain Watson said the Department of Health’s new quarantine measures were announced Because one person has been “threatening to abscond” despite signing a contract agreeing to the isolation period.
He said the regulations were brought in “to try and compel him to stay put “.
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