Coronavirus reached Britain in late January, cases have been on the rise since late February and the first death was recorded on March 5.
Thousands of people in the UK have been tested for Covid – , and the government released an emergency action plan to deal with the pandemic.
It warned up to one in five workers in the UK could be off sick during a coronavirus peak , while the police may switch to only dealing with serious crime. The – page document sets out the UK-wide response, with possible measures including the cancellation of non-urgent operations and retired NHS staff being called “back to duty”.
The Telegraph’s map below plots where cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the UK. It is sourced from Public Health England announcements and will be updated regularly based on trustworthy data.
The number of cases confirmed in the UK hit more than 1, 728 on Sunday 16 March. 60 people have died.
The UK will remain in the containment phase, but the virus is expected to spread “in a significant way”, the government said following an emergency Cobra meeting earlier this week. Following a second Cobra meeting today, Boris Johnson is expected to announce the UK will move to the “delay” phase , and will outline “social distancing “measures expected from the public.
Dr David Nabarro, World Health Organization special envoy for coronavirus has warned that the Government will look at measures to help limit the spread, including gatherings of people in pubs, religious buildings and community halls, as well as at larger events.
How the NHS will cope
Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said the NHS would cope with a major spread of cases but could come under “very high pressure” in a large epidemic.
He said: “For the great majority of people this will be a mild or moderate disease, anything from a sniffle to having to go to bed for a few days rather like with mild flu.
“And there are some people who will get it with no symptoms at all, but for a minority of people – and this is particular in people who are older people or people with pre-existing health conditions – the risk is higher .
“The NHS will always cope because the NHS is an emergency service which is very good at adapting to what it finds itself with.”
But he said if the UK sees a very large epidemic, “then it will put very high pressure on the NHS” and there could be “several weeks which could be very difficult” for the health service and wider society.
Prof Whitty said he believes there is now onward transmission between people in the UK – which could lead to spiralling numbers – although only two cases of this nature have been identified so far.
What does that mean for the UK?
Mitigation efforts in the UK will be driven by the UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy and fall into four main areas:
How did coronavirus spread?
At the end of December, the Chinese authorities sent out a public alert warning that a “pneumonia of unknown cause” had been identified in Wuhan, central China.
Some 15 days later, on Jan 7, scientists announced that a new coronavirus was the source of the outbreak – quickly adding that it did not appear to be spreading between humans.
At that point, fewer than 70 cases had been found. But now the virus, which has since been named Covid – 19, has spread to well over 390 Countries, infecting more than 500, people and killing more than 6, 823. Scientists believe that the virus has mutated into two strains : the older ‘S-type’ appears to be milder and less infectious, while the ‘L-type’ which emerged later, spreads quickly and currently accounts for around per cent of cases.
This map, which updates automatically, shows where the disease is now, how many cases there have been and how many people have died:
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