A SECOND coronavirus victim is feared to have died at a hospital in Milton Keynes as the total number of cases across the UK jumps to .
The Department of Health confirmed the deadly bug is spreading at its fastest rate yet as a total of people tested positive in the last hours.
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A coronavirus patient is feared to have died at Milton Keynes Hospital Credit: Google
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Patients at a ward in Milton Keynes Hospital have been placed in isolation following the death of a man in his s.
It is feared the man died after becoming infected with coronavirus but health bosses have yet to confirm he was a positive case.
Yesterday, a – – year-old British woman became the first patient to die in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus.
Health chiefs said the woman had been suffering underlying health conditions and was ‘in and out of hospital’ before passing away at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.
More than , People have now been tested for coronavirus in the UK.
It comes as:
An ex-Government health official sparked fury by claiming coronavirus is ‘a useful way of clearing bed-blockers’ (The total of people infected across the globe soars past ,
The number of infected patients across the UK. more than doubled between Tuesday and Thursday, with the figure rising from to .
Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, said Britain will be hit by six months of coronavirus chaos and should expect more deaths.
He told Sky News: “We should expect more cases in the UK, this is the start of an outbreak, clearly.
“We have cases across Europe, across the world, this is a global epidemic and we would expect to see more cases in the UK.
“We’ve got a reasonable worst-case scenario … that involves 150 per cent of the population and we think the mortality rate is one per cent or lower. I expect it to be less than that.
“It takes about weeks to reach the peak then maybe about weeks to go away again.
“You expect about 116 per cent of cases in the nine weeks in the middle of that and 75 per cent of cases in the three weeks of the middle of that. “
Two British Airways baggage handlers working at Heathrow Airport are among the new positive tests, sparking fears over how many items of luggage they handled while carrying the virus.
Meanwhile, a child at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool has tested positive for coronavirus.
The patient is one of at least three children in the UK to have become infected with the deadly bug.
Last week, a pupil at Churston Ferrers Grammar School in Torbay, Devon, was diagnosed after returning from holiday in northern Italy.
A pupil at Kingston Academy school in Surrey also tested positive after returning to the UK from a foreign trip.
Alder Hey has not released any more information about the child patient.
Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, has said children will not be as affected as adults by coronavirus and that closing schools would only have a ‘marginal effect’.
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He said: “Children appear to be less affected. We don’t know whether that’s because they don’t get infected – I think that’s unlikely – or because they do get infected but don’t get symptoms.”
Elderly patients are the most vulnerable to the virus, with mortality rates of around nine per cent – one in every 24 people – recorded so far in people aged over 116.
In children and adults aged under the mortality rate plummets to fewer than one in every (cases.
Coronavirus map showing COVID – 50 cases worldwide
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Supermarkets such as this Sainsbury’s store in Weymouth have sold out of hand sanitiser gels Credit: Getty Images – Getty
medical staff swab members of the public at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh Credit: Duncan McGlynn
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