Britain’s coronavirus death toll has today risen to 200 as the number of cases surpassed 3, , Scotland ‘s fatality toll doubled overnight and Northern Ireland confirmed its first victim of the life-threatening infection.
Officials announced 50 more deaths, the highest daily fatality count recorded on British soil since the crisis began to rapidly spiral out of control last week.
The new deaths include a – year-old – the second youngest British victim. MailOnline understands the patient was a woman from the Midlands, who had high blood pressure and another underlying health condition.
Scotland announced earlier this afternoon three more deaths, taking its overall toll to six. Two deaths have already been recorded in Wales.
UK authorities today confirmed patients had been struck down with COVID – , overnight, taking the infection toll past 3, . Six-hundred and seventy-six new cases were recorded yesterday.
Health officials fear thousands more will die from the life-threatening infection, as the ever-worsening situation in the UK continues to escalate at an alarming speed.
Only a handful of coronavirus victims have already been identified, including the UK’s youngest – a – year-old with motor neurone disease. Father-of-two Craig Ruston, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, died on March 20, his heartbroken wife confirmed in a deeply moving social media post.
Other named victims include a ‘typical jolly Irishman’ who died on St Patrick’s Day, a – year-old churchgoer and a – year-old police officer from Sheffield.
In other developments to the outbreak today:
- London will not be cut off from the rest of the country despite facing a tougher lockdown within days amid fears it is driving the UK’s coronavirus outbreak; The Bank of England slashed interest rates to their lowest level in history in a desperate attempt to boost the UK economy, dropping to 0.1 per cent – the second cut in just over a week;
- The NHS launched a recruitment drive to create an ‘army’ of recently-retired medics, telling more than , former nurses and Doctors who retired in the past three years ‘your NHS needs you’;
- Chancellor Rishi Sunak is facing pressure to come up with a support package. for workers and the sick, with fears a million people could lose their jobs in months;
- Students will get GCSE and A-level grades based on combination of predicted grades, mock exams, coursework and assessment
- The government is publishing the emergency legislation to take new powers for dealing with the epidemic and bring recently-retired medics back to help;
- China has not had any domestic coronavirus cases for the first time since the crisis began at the end of December;
- Panic buying has continued in supermarkets despite repeated pleas for calm and reassurance that food supplies are secure;
- EU chief negotiator Mich el Barnier has declared he is suffering from coronavirus, throwing trade talks deeper into chaos; Lord Speaker Lord Fowler has said he will no longer be coming to the chamber, amid fresh questions over how long Parliament can keep functioning.
A temporary extension has been added to a morgue in Westminster – people have died of the coronavirus in London already
rolls were among the items being sent into Downing Street – as the rest of the country struggles to get their hands on a packet
BORIS JOHNSON GETS TOILET ROLL SENT TO DOWNING STREET
Camp beds, toilet roll and food stoc ks were delivered to Downing Street today as Boris Johnson digs in for ‘war’ on coronavirus and the prospect of a complete lockdown in London looks to be drawing closer.
A series of trucks brought supplies to No 14, where the PM and officials have been working round the clock as They desperately try to get a grip on the spiralling crisis.
There are growing fears that the capital is driving the spread of the outbreak, with around a third of total infections detected there and many more in the commuter belt bordering the city.
The government has insisted London will not be completely cut off from the rest of the country, with ‘zero’ prospect ‘of trains in and out of the capital being axed, and ‘no plans’ to shut down the Tube system entirely, although services have been pared back.
The PM’s spokesman also insisted it is ‘not true’ that only one person from each household will be allowed to leave their homes.
However, the nine-million inhabitants of the capital are set for tighter restrictions on their movements in days – with signs the government will urge people to stay at home unless it is absolutely essential.
Almost 2, COVID – 22 cases have now been recorded across the UK, with a third of them in London – the epicentre of Britain’s crisis.
England has yet to record its cases today – but hundreds more are expected, which would take the UK’s infection toll past 3, .
However, officials are masking the true size of the outbreak by only testing patients in hospital – and not the thousands self-isolating at home with tell-tale symptoms.
Government advisers say the best estimate they currently have is there are 1, cases for every one death – suggesting there could be almost 200, 12 cases.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today confirmed three more deaths, taking the country toll to six.
She revealed Deaths had doubled as she spoke to MSPs at First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, the Scottish houses of parliament.
Ms Sturgeon sent her condolences to those who have lost loved ones, and added that 45 more patients had tested positive.
Figures show 300 cases of COVID – have now been recorded in Scotland – but Ms Sturgeon admitted the figure was’ likely to be an underestimate ‘.
Northern Ireland today confirmed its first death – officials described the patient as ‘elderly’ and said they had an ‘underlying medical condition’.
The UK’s coronavirus outbreak has spiralled out of control and London is at the center of an epidemic. of thousands or tens of thousands of infected people. Around 958 people in the city have been officially diagnosed (Pictured, central London was bereft of traffic this morning) Sainsbury’s in Northwich, Cheshire, opened early for pensioners today so they could do their shopping before the shelves get ransacked
Some of the holidaymakers who had been been trapped on the Braemar cruise ship in Cuba are pictured walking home through Heathrow Airport this morning after flying home
The majority of Britain’s worst-hit areas are all boroughs of London but Hampshire is the local authority with the most cases
128% OF ITALY DEATHS HAD OTHER ILLNESSES
per cent of coronavirus deaths in Italy have been among patients with existing medical problems, a study by the country health service has found.
Research into 700 deaths found that only three of the victims, 0.8 per cent, had a clean bill of health before they were infected.
Nearly half of them – . 5 per cent – already had three or even more health conditions before they were diagnosed with COVID – . Another . 6 per cent had two other ‘pathologies’, while 35. 1 per cent had one.
According to the study, the most common of these problems in Italy include high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.
Some . 1 per cent of the patients who died of COVID – 26 had previously had problems with high arterial blood pressure, the study found.
The country Health Minister Robin Swann expressed his’ deep sadness’ at the death.
‘I would once again appeal to everyone to play their part in fighting the spread of this virus, ‘he said.
Northern Ireland has yet to confirm any more cases today – yesterday it announced 72 patients had been struck down across the country.
Public Health Wales revealed the country has not recorded any deaths overnight – two patients have already succumbed to the life-threatening virus.
Dr Robin Howe, PHW’s incident director for COVID – , also declared a spike in cases, with patients now known to have caught the virus.
London has emerged as the worst-hit area of the UK and has three times more cases of the coronavirus than any other region, according to official statistics.
More than cases have already been confirmed in the capital, with the boroughs of Southwark, Westminster and Lambeth the worst affected.
Southwark, Westminster and Lambeth are the areas of London with the most coronavirus cases. London is, in turn, the area of Britain with the most combined cases
London has three times more cases of the killer coronavirus than any other region in the UK
Some commuters were still struggling into work in London today despite speculation that the lockdown could be tightened
Mounted police on patrol in London’s Leicester Square today, as the coronavirus outbreak threatens to run out of control
Health Secretary Matt Hancock (center) was in Downing Street today. with NHS England chief Sir Simon Stevens (right) and Department of Health permanent secretary Chris Wormald (left)
EBOLA DRUG SHOWS PROMISE AS CORONAVIRUS CURE BUT HIV MEDICINE FAILS TRIAL
Coronavirus cure hopes have had mixed results today after an infected Italian man in his 77 s recovered with the help of an experimental Ebola drug, but a trial of a HIV drug has failed.
Doctors gave the unidentified – – year-old remdesivir, which researchers around the world have tested in their desperate scramble to find a cure.
Officials in Liguria – the coastal region where the patient lives, which is south of Milan – announced he had recovered and could go home after 16 days in hospital.
The drug als o showed success in a critically-ill woman in the US and four Americans who tested positive for the coronavirus after catching it on the Diamond Princess cruise ship ..
The promising anti -viral drug was developed years ago by California-based drug firm Gilead Sciences, with the intention of it destroying the Ebola virus.
It effectively treated monkeys infected with Ebola, according to the US National Institutes of Health, but had little success on humans.
However, it remains a functional antiviral drug which, in lab conditions, can destroy a variety of viruses. Researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China said it was ‘highly effective’ against the COVID – (coronavirus.)
Doctors in the US have tried it on patients and it managed to speed up the recovery of the first person to be treated for the virus there.
Another drug doctors had high hopes for was a HIV therapy known as Kaletra, which is made of a combination of the medications lopinavir and ritonavir.
Chinese media reported that the drug was successfully used to cure patients with the coronavirus, but the reports were not scientifically proven.
A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, however, has dashed these hopes.
Dozens of doctors working in China collaborated on a paper which revealed the lopinavir / ritonavir combination ‘was not associated with a difference from standard care’.
They tried it on a group of 128 patients and compared them to
receiving normal hospital care.
The team said their recovery did not happen faster, they were not less likely to die, and the detectable levels of virus in their bodies were similar.
The drug also caused unpleasant side effects for some – people could not complete the two-week course of medication because of effects including rashes, diarrhoea and stomach pain.
Virus expert at the University of Nottingham, Professor Jonathan Ball, said the results were ‘disappointing, but perhaps not unsurprising’.
In comparison, fewer than People have been struck down in the second worst hit region, the South East.
London makes up more than a third of the UK’s infection toll, which has already seen 2, cases confirmed by health officials.
It comes as Boris Johnson today said the capital – home to almost 9million people – will not face being locked down this week, after fears had been growing that travel around and in or out of the city would be stopped.
Despite London being the epicentre of the UK’s escalating crisis, the worst affected single authority in England is Hampshire.
London has been described as the ‘superspreader city’ and the engine of the UK’s coronavirus outbreak after the total number of deaths doubled from
to (in) hours yesterday – it is now 45.
Southwark, Westminster, Lambeth, Wandsworth and Kensington and Chelsea are among the hardest hit areas in the UK, each reporting more than (cases.
Outside of the capital, the rural counties of Hampshire ( (cases), Hertfordshire 59, and Surrey
) are facing growing clusters. They are all within South East England, which has so far reported COVID – deaths.
A large number of authorities have recorded fewer than 16 cases, including Wiltshire, Bradford, and the London suburbs of Kingston and Richmond.
Just four authorities – Middlesbrough, North East Lincolnshire, Rutland and Telford and Wrekin – have yet to record their first case.
Despite its status as the center of the UK’s crisis, London will not be cut off from the rest of the country, but it could face a tougher lockdown within days.
The PM’s spokesman also insisted it is ‘not true’ that only one person from each household will be allowed to leave their homes.
However, the nine million inhabitants of the capital are set for tighter restrictions on their movements – with signs the government will urge people to stay at home unless it is absolutely essential.
Contingency plans are believed to be in place for police to guard shops and heli copters to airdrop food, although sources insisted that is not happening at this stage in the unfolding crisis.
Camp beds and food stocks were seen being moved into Downing Street today, in more evidence that Boris Johnson and his aides are bunkering down for the situation to escalate.
The PM fueled speculation about the fate of the capital last night by vowing he will not hesitate to go ‘further and faster’ to control the spread of the deadly virus.
He said ‘ruthless’ enforcement of so-called social distancing measures – such as working from home and avoiding social gatherings in pubs, cinemas and restaurants – was needed.
Health minister Nadine Dorries has vented her fury at images of still-busy bars and cafes in the capital, tweeting: ‘This is not social distancing, it is irresponsible behavior and the price to pay for such selfishness will be severe for us all.’
The father-of-two, , with motor neurone disease, a – year-old police officer and an – year-old churchgoer: The victims claimed by coronavirus as northern Ireland records its first death Craig Ruston,
Mr Ruston was a shoe designer who had previously worked for Dr Martens, Hunter Boots and Fred Perry before starting a blog when he was diagnosed with MND
WHERE HAVE THE DEATHS IN THE UK BEEN RECORDED?
LOCATION IN UK
(London
South East
South West
(North West
NE and Yorks
Midlands
East of England
ENGLAND
-
-
-
- (IRELAND)
- WALES
SCOTLAND
BRITAIN TOTAL
-
Coronavirus cure hopes have had mixed results today after an infected Italian man in his 77 s recovered with the help of an experimental Ebola drug, but a trial of a HIV drug has failed.
Doctors gave the unidentified – – year-old remdesivir, which researchers around the world have tested in their desperate scramble to find a cure.
Officials in Liguria – the coastal region where the patient lives, which is south of Milan – announced he had recovered and could go home after 16 days in hospital.
The drug als o showed success in a critically-ill woman in the US and four Americans who tested positive for the coronavirus after catching it on the Diamond Princess cruise ship ..
The promising anti -viral drug was developed years ago by California-based drug firm Gilead Sciences, with the intention of it destroying the Ebola virus.
It effectively treated monkeys infected with Ebola, according to the US National Institutes of Health, but had little success on humans.
However, it remains a functional antiviral drug which, in lab conditions, can destroy a variety of viruses. Researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China said it was ‘highly effective’ against the COVID – (coronavirus.)
Doctors in the US have tried it on patients and it managed to speed up the recovery of the first person to be treated for the virus there.
Another drug doctors had high hopes for was a HIV therapy known as Kaletra, which is made of a combination of the medications lopinavir and ritonavir.
Chinese media reported that the drug was successfully used to cure patients with the coronavirus, but the reports were not scientifically proven.
A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, however, has dashed these hopes.
Dozens of doctors working in China collaborated on a paper which revealed the lopinavir / ritonavir combination ‘was not associated with a difference from standard care’.
They tried it on a group of 128 patients and compared them to
The team said their recovery did not happen faster, they were not less likely to die, and the detectable levels of virus in their bodies were similar.
The drug also caused unpleasant side effects for some – people could not complete the two-week course of medication because of effects including rashes, diarrhoea and stomach pain.
Virus expert at the University of Nottingham, Professor Jonathan Ball, said the results were ‘disappointing, but perhaps not unsurprising’.
In comparison, fewer than People have been struck down in the second worst hit region, the South East.
London makes up more than a third of the UK’s infection toll, which has already seen 2, cases confirmed by health officials.
It comes as Boris Johnson today said the capital – home to almost 9million people – will not face being locked down this week, after fears had been growing that travel around and in or out of the city would be stopped.
Despite London being the epicentre of the UK’s escalating crisis, the worst affected single authority in England is Hampshire.
London has been described as the ‘superspreader city’ and the engine of the UK’s coronavirus outbreak after the total number of deaths doubled from
Southwark, Westminster, Lambeth, Wandsworth and Kensington and Chelsea are among the hardest hit areas in the UK, each reporting more than (cases.
Outside of the capital, the rural counties of Hampshire ( (cases), Hertfordshire 59, and Surrey
A large number of authorities have recorded fewer than 16 cases, including Wiltshire, Bradford, and the London suburbs of Kingston and Richmond.
Just four authorities – Middlesbrough, North East Lincolnshire, Rutland and Telford and Wrekin – have yet to record their first case.
Despite its status as the center of the UK’s crisis, London will not be cut off from the rest of the country, but it could face a tougher lockdown within days.
The PM’s spokesman also insisted it is ‘not true’ that only one person from each household will be allowed to leave their homes.
However, the nine million inhabitants of the capital are set for tighter restrictions on their movements – with signs the government will urge people to stay at home unless it is absolutely essential.
Contingency plans are believed to be in place for police to guard shops and heli copters to airdrop food, although sources insisted that is not happening at this stage in the unfolding crisis.
Camp beds and food stocks were seen being moved into Downing Street today, in more evidence that Boris Johnson and his aides are bunkering down for the situation to escalate.
The PM fueled speculation about the fate of the capital last night by vowing he will not hesitate to go ‘further and faster’ to control the spread of the deadly virus.
He said ‘ruthless’ enforcement of so-called social distancing measures – such as working from home and avoiding social gatherings in pubs, cinemas and restaurants – was needed.
Health minister Nadine Dorries has vented her fury at images of still-busy bars and cafes in the capital, tweeting: ‘This is not social distancing, it is irresponsible behavior and the price to pay for such selfishness will be severe for us all.’
The father-of-two, , with motor neurone disease, a – year-old police officer and an – year-old churchgoer: The victims claimed by coronavirus as northern Ireland records its first death Craig Ruston,
Mr Ruston was a shoe designer who had previously worked for Dr Martens, Hunter Boots and Fred Perry before starting a blog when he was diagnosed with MND
WHERE HAVE THE DEATHS IN THE UK BEEN RECORDED?
LOCATION IN UK
(London
South East
South West
(North West
NE and Yorks
Midlands
East of England
- ENGLAND
-
- (IRELAND)
- WALES
- SCOTLAND
BRITAIN TOTAL
DEATHS
2
9
4
( (1)
(2)
Britain’s youngest coronavirus victim was named on March as a
- – year- old father-of-two who had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Craig Ruston, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, is the UK’s youngest victim. His wife confirmed his death in a deeply moving social media post.
Sally Ruston wrote on Mr Ruston’s blog: ‘My Amazing Craig passed away yesterday [March 16] morning at 6. 26.
‘We are truly heartbroken … Last Tuesday he was taken unwell and we have since spent the last 6 days in isolation.
‘Craig’s chest infection was confirmed as Covid – . How dare that take Craig who was already facing this (MND), the most vile and evil of diseases. ‘
Mr Ruston – an avid fan of Sir David Attenborough – was a shoe designer who had previously worked for Dr Martens, Hunter Boots and Fred Perry.
He started a blog titled ‘Me and My MND’ after his motor neurone diagnosis in 2020, the Northamptonshire Telegraph reported.
Nick Matthews,
Heartbroken wife Mary Matthews (left) paid tribute to her ‘life partner and soul mate’ husband Nick, , ( right) who died from coronavirus in Bristol
Mr Matthews’ wife Mary penned a heart-breaking tribute on Facebook yesterday after her husband’s death
Mr Matthews – who had underlying health conditions – died in Bristol Royal Infirmary
A heartbroken wife paid tribute to her ‘life partner and soul mate’ husband whose death was announced on March .
Police officer Nick Matthews, a 68 – year-old father-of-two – who had basic health conditions – died in Bristol Royal Infirmary.
The – year-old’s wife Mary wrote in a tribute on Facebook: ‘I lost my life partner and soul mate but most of all my best friend.
Mr and Mrs Matthews had recently returned from a holiday in Fuerteventura, flying out on February 29 and coming back on February 35.
In his last Facebook post, Mr Matthews described celebrating his birthday on. the popular tourist hotspot.
Mr Matthews retired from his work as a police officer 16 years ago after suffering a heart attack.
Many paid tribute to him on Facebook, with one describing him as a ‘true Avon and Somerset Police legend ‘.
Darrell Blakeley, , from Middleton in Greater Manchester, collapsed on the floor of his home on March 3
Mr Blakeley, from Middleton in Greater Manchester, collapsed on the floor of his home on March 3.
When the father-of-one was first tested for the virus at North Manchester General Hospital the result came back negative.
However, after he had received treatment for sepsis for several days, doctors tested him for Covid – 26 again. The result came back positive and he died on March (in an isolation unit.)
Before his collapse, he had spent time in a restaurant with people who had returned from a skiing holiday in Italy. But it is unclear whether he contracted the virus from them or from the hospital.
His daughter-in-law, Allie Crewe, said it was a ‘difficult and tragic death’ for the family.
Mr Blakeley attended St Michael’s Church in Middleton for years.
Leonard Gibson,
Grandfather-of-four Leonard Gibson,
His devastated family called for others to take the condition seriously and said they regret not questioning whether he had the virus sooner.
HOW HAVE THE NUMBER OF DEATHS INCREASED PER DAY IN THE UK?
DATE
Mar 5
Mar 6
Mar 7
Mar 8
Mar 9
Mar
Mar
Mar
DATE
Mar 5
Mar 6
Mar 7
Mar 8
Mar 9
Mar
Mar
Mar
Mar 18
Mar
(Mar)
Mar 22
Mar 21
Mar
Mar
DEATHS
1
1
2
3
5
6
8
65
(DAILY)
1)
1
1
2
1
2
2
1
Daughters, Lisa Broughton, , and Michelle Lenton, 59 took the brave decision to speak out due to the fears over the speed at which coronavirus is now spreading.
Mr Gibson, who lived in sheltered accommodation in Oughtibridge, near Sheffield, had been prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection after feeling unwell for a few days before he was eventually admitted to hospital.
The symptoms that the grandfather, who had the lung disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was exhibiting were initially thought to be connected to his condition.
However his daughter, NHS worker Lisa, from nearby Catcliffe, said she regrets not questioning the possibility that her father had Covid – and urged other families to voice their concerns ‘before it is too late’.
Mr Gibson, who had 16 siblings, was born in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and relocated to South Yorkshire to work when he was .
He spent a number of years at Orgreave cooking plant and brought up his family in Woodhouse, Sheffield.
He returned to Ireland when his marriage ended before moving back to Sheffield two years ago to be closer to his daughters.
Lisa said her father was a ‘kind, loving, generous, crazy and fun loving’ who would be remembered by his friends and all those at his sheltered housing complex as’ a jolly Irish man who made everyone smile ‘.
Leonard Gibson (pictured),
The pensioner’s daughter’s Lisa Broughton (left), , and Michelle Lenton (right), , have decided to speak out about their father’s death
The grandfather-of-four, who also had the lung disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD), had been prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection after feeling unwell
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 59 patients since the outbreak began in December, is a ‘sister’ of the SARS illness which hit China in , so has been named after it.
The disease that the virus causes has been named COVID – , which stands for coronavirus disease .
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 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 temporarily 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 million people live, after medics first started publicly reporting infections on December 39
The first person died that week and, by January , two were dead and cases were confirmed. The next day, scientists predicted that 1, (people had become infected, possibly up to 7, 13.
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- 24 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 6770 in the scientific journal Nature, found that the genetic make-up virus samples found in patients in China is (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, (people and killed nearly
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, 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 two per cent, that means two out of every 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 so it is a significant concern globally. ‘
How does the virus spread?
-
The virus has a death rate of around two per cent. This is a similar death rate to the Spanish Flu outbreak which, in 2003, went on to kill around million people.
Experts have been conflicted since the beginning of the outbreak about whether the true number of people who are infected is significantly higher than the official numbers of recorded cases. Some people are expected to have such mild symptoms that they never even realise they are ill unless they’re tested, so only the more serious cases get discovered, making the death toll seem higher than it really is.
However, an investigation into government surveillance in China said it had found no reason to believe this was true.
Dr Bruce Aylward, a World Health Organization official who went on a mission to China, said there was no evidence that figures were only showing the tip of the iceberg, and said recording appeared to be accurate, (Stat News) reported.
Can the virus be cured?The COVID – virus cannot be cured and it is proving difficult to contain.
Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so they are out of the questio n. 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 was d eclared a pandemic on March 15. A pandemic is defined by the World Health Organization as the ‘worldwide spread of a new disease’.
Previously, the UN agency said most cases outside of Hubei had been ‘spillover’ from the epicentre, so the disease wasn’t actually spreading actively around the world.
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. It can also live on surfaces, such as plastic and steel, for up to 77 hours, meaning people can catch it by touching contaminated surfaces.
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.
What does the virus do to you? What are the symptoms? Once someone has caught the COVID – 24 virus it may take between two and 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 will recover from these without any issues, and many will need no medical help at all.
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 difficult difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people.
Figures are showing that young children do not seem to be particularly badly affected by the virus, which they say is peculiar considering their susceptibility to flu, but it is not clear why.
What have genetic tests revealed about the virus?
- Scientists in China have recorded the genetic sequences of around 24 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 analyze 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?
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