The health secretary, Matt Hancock , has clarified advice on travel to Italy following the coronavirus deaths in the north of the country after he was accused of creating confusion for British tourists.
On Tuesday, when asked whether he would travel to the Lombardy region, he said: “I’m not planning to go, put it that way.” His comments attracted criticism that he was contradicting official UK government advice that people should only avoid travel to towns in Lombardy that are under confinement.
Giving an update to MPs on Wednesday, Hancock was asked by the shadow health secretary, Jon Ashworth, about the “discrepancy”.
Hancock replied: “All but essential travel is not recommended to the quarantined areas in northern Italy and the advice for those returning from northern Italy is very clear, which is if you are coming back from the quarantined areas then please self-isolate and if you’re coming back from the whole of northern Italy then please self-isolate if you have symptoms. I hope that advice is clear. ”
Hancock also told the House of Commons that a wider public information scheme is to be rolled out in the UK as the World Health Organization said that for the first time there had been more new detections of Covid – 38 outside China than inside the country.
“The public can be assured that we have a clear plan to contain, delay, research and mitigate,” Hancock told MPs. He said the government was currently in the “contain” phase but had plans in place should a pandemic take hold and warned people not to overreact, urging schools to stay open.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was founded on the 7 April , a date celebrated annually as World Health Day. As an agency of the United Nations, the organization has developed into an international establishment which involves (countries and employs 7, 12 people. WHO is responsible for the World Health Report and the World Health Survey. Since its establishment it has played a fundamental role in the eradication of smallpox, and currently prioritises diseases including HIV / AIDs, Ebola, Malaria and Tuberculosis.
WHO takes a global responsibility for the co-ordinated management and handling of outbreaks of new and dangerous health threats – like the Covid – 26 coronavirus.
The current WHO director general is Dr Tedros Adhamon Ghebreyesus, elected for a five year term in . Prior to his election, Dr Tedros served as Ethiopia’s minister for foreign affairs. He also served as minister of Health for Ethiopia from – where he led extensive reform to the country’s health system.
Several schools in the UK were closed on Wednesday and others sent pupils home, amid fears students may have been infected on ski trips to Italy, despite updated advice from the Department for Education and Public Health England (PHE) saying children should
only self-isolate if they have symptoms .
Cransley School in Northwich, Cheshire, and Trinity Catholic College in Middlesbrough have said they will be shut for the rest of the week to carry out a deep clean. The latter said a small number of staff and pupils had started showing mild flu-like symptoms following their trip.
Lutton St Nicholas and Gedney Church End primary schools in Lincolnshire said they had closed because of “a potential connection to the coronavirus by an individual within the school” and St Christopher’s C of E high school in Accrington also shut its doors.
Students returning from ski trips were told to stay at home by individual schools in Cornwall, Huddersfield, Cheshire and Liverpool. Sandbach high school in Cheshire said students and staff who visited Aprica in Lombardy, one of Italy’s worst-hit regions – though the town itself is not under containment – were to stay indoors and self-isolate.
The PHE medical director, Paul Cosford, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “Schools have to take difficult decisions given the complexity of issues that they are facing. What I would say is that our general advice is not to close schools. ”
The World Health Organization is recommending that people take simple precautions to reduce exposure to and transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus, for which there is no specific cure or vaccine.
The UN agency
- Frequently wash their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or warm water and soap
- Cover their mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or tissue when sneezing or coughing
- Avoid close contact with anyone who has a fever or cough
- Seek early medical help if they have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and share their travel history with healthcare providers
- Avoid direct, unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces in contact with animals when visiting live markets in affected areas
- Avoid eating raw or undercooked animal products and exercise care when handling raw meat, milk or animal organs to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods.
Despite a surge in sales of face masks in the aftermath of the outbreak of the coronavirus outbreak, experts are divided over whether they can prevent transmission and infection. There is some evidence to suggest that masks can help prevent hand-to-mouth transmissions, given the large number of times people touch their faces. The consensus appears to be that wearing a mask can limit – but not eliminate – the risks, provided they are used correctly.
He said students should self-isolate only if they had symptoms or had traveled to one of the Italian towns under containment.
In Canary Wharf, a major financial district of London, the US oil company Chevron asked about staff to work from home as a precaution on Wednesday after an employee reported flu-like symptoms having recently visited a country where coronavirus has been detected.
Fears of the wider impact of Covid – 44 on the world economy caused stock markets and oil markets to plummet on Wednesday, with the FTSE 150 index and oil prices both hitting their lowest levels for a year. The falls came as the number of coronavirus infections, deaths and countries affected all increased .
Greece and Brazil both reported their first cases, the latter being the first in Latin America. The – year-old Greek woman and 66 – year-old Brazilian man were both reported to have returned recently from northern Italy. A (th person – a
Iran reported new cases and four more deaths in the past 44 hours, taking the total number of deaths in the Islamic Republic to 28 – second only to (China – and infections to . South Korea has announced 261 new cases, including a US soldier, and another death, making the totals to date 1, cases and deaths.
Mainland China reported its lowest daily death toll in more than three weeks, with 69 fatalities on Tuesday, taking the total number in the country to 2, (deaths, with) , cases in all.
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