Coronavirus cases in UK DOUBLES to 8 amid warning patients will be ‘forcibly quarantined to deal with imminent threat’
CORONAVIRUS cases in the UK have doubled to eight today after four more patients tested positive for the killer bug.
The new cases - three men and a woman - are all known contacts of a businessman who was diagnosed in Brighton last week.
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The middle-aged ";super-spreader" contracted the virus at a conference in Singapore before travelling to a ski chalet in France.
Five other Britons staying at the were subsequently taken ill with the deadly virus, which has claimed more than 900 lives and infected 40,000 people globally.
One of the victims is Bob Saynor, who owns the ski chalet in Contamines-Montjoie, and his nine-year-old son.
Last night French health minister Agnes Buzyn revealed Mr Saynor's wife Catriona, 50, was under observation in a UK hospital.
It's not been confirmed whether she is among the four people diagnosed with the virus today.
Isolated
The Department of Health said all of the new cases were contracted in France and have been taken to isolation units in London.
One of the new confirmed cases is reportedly a doctor from Brighton who was part of the group at the ski resort, according to the .
We are working quickly to identify any further contacts these patients have had
Professor Chris Whitty
Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said: “Experts at Public Health England continue to work hard tracing patient contacts from the UK cases.
"They successfully identified these individuals and ensured the appropriate support was provided.
“The patients have been transferred to specialist NHS centres at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and The Royal Free hospitals, and we are now using robust infection control measures to prevent further spread of the virus.
"The NHS is extremely well prepared to manage these cases and treat them, and we are working quickly to identify any further contacts these patients have had."
Public Health England are desperately trying to trace hundreds of passengers who were on board a UK bound flight with the businessman.
He is believed to have shown no symptoms when he flew back to London Gatwick on an easyJet flight from Geneva on January 28.
A spokesperson for the airline said: "All of the crew who operated have been advised to monitor themselves for a 14-day period since the flight in line with Public Health England advice.
"Note this happened 12 days ago and none are displaying any symptoms.”
Dr Nick Phin, deputy director of the national infection service at Public Health England, said: “Our priority is speaking to those people who have had close and sustained contact with confirmed cases so that we can advise them on what they can do to limit the spread of the virus.”
'Super-spreader'
The mystery man was unaware he contracted the virus during a conference at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore organised by British gas firm Servomex.
From here, he flew to France where he inadvertently spread the deadly virus after staying four nights at a ski chalet in Contamines-Montjoie.
When he started to feel ill upon his return to the UK he went to hospital in Brighton before being transferred to the infectious disease unit at St Thomas’s hospital in London.
Five Brits who shared the chalet were diagnosed over the weekend and hundreds of people at the resort have been tested.
The family is understood to have been living in the village for just three months after moving from Hove, West Sussex.
Coronavirus fears are now heightened in Hove - including a Portslade Community Academy pupil being treated in "self isolation" after coming into contact with the super-spreader.
Five staff members at The Grenadier Pub in Hove are also in self-isolation at home after the man visited the boozer between 7pm and 9pm last Saturday.
Public Health England told the Grenadier's employees working on the night he popped in to stay at home for two weeks.
It's prompted experts to describe the man at the centre of the outbreak at the ski chalet as a "super-spreader".
Dr Andrew Freedman, consultant physician at Cardiff University, said: "This is not particularly surprising, but it does appear that the index case has passed on the infection to an unusually large number of contacts.
"As such, he could be termed a 'super-spreader’.
“This may occur as result of someone being infectious despite having few or no symptoms, meaning they are unaware they have the infection.
"It can also result from someone coming into close contact with an unusually large number of people or someone carrying a larger than normal quantity of the virus."
'Serious threat'
It comes as the Government declared coronavirus a "serious and imminent threat to public health" as it introduced new powers to deal with the spread of the virus.
Under new powers announced today, the health ministry said people with the illness can now be forcibly quarantined and will not be free to leave, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat to public health.
The measures are understood to have been introduced in response to one of the Britons who returned from Wuhan attempting to leave isolation.
A Government source said "there was someone who was threatening to abscond from Arrowe Park" despite all the Britons who returned on the evacuation flight signing a contract agreeing to a 14-day quarantine period - which ends this Thursday.
The Dept of Health later tweeted to say that the risk to the public had not changed and remains at "moderate".
Around 150 Brits were flown back from Wuhan yesterday and will now be quarantined at a facility in Milton Keynes.
Arrowe Park Hospital and Kents Hill Park have been designated as "isolation" facilities, with and Wuhan and Hubei province in China labelled "infected areas".
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the flight had brought back 105 British nationals and family members, as well as 95 European nationals and family members.
Elsewhere, 60 more people on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in the port of Yokohama have tested positive for coronavirus, Japan's health minister has said.
There are now 130 confirmed cases on the ship, with officials previously saying 70 people had the virus among the 3,711 passengers and crew.
What is coronavirus?
Coronavirus is an airborne virus, spread in a similar way to colds and the flu.
The virus attacks the respiratory system, causing lung lesions.
Symptoms include a runny nose, headache, cough and fever, shortness of breath, chills and body aches.
It is incredibly contagious and is spread through contact with anything the virus is on as well as infected breath, coughs or sneezes.
Symptoms include a runny nose, headache, cough and fever, shortness of breath, chills and body aches.
In most cases, you won't know whether you have a coronavirus or a different cold-causing virus, such as rhinovirus.
But if a coronavirus infection spreads to the lower respiratory tract (your windpipe and your lungs), it can cause pneumonia, especially in older people, people with heart disease or people with weakened immune systems.
There is no vaccine for coronavirus.
In 2003 an outbreak of a similar virus, SARS, infected more than 8,000 people in 37 countries before it was brought under control, killing 800 of those worldwide.
More than 3,600 people, including 78 British passport holders, are still in a 14-day quarantine on board the ship.
British honeymooner Alan Steele, who was transferred from the cruise liner to hospital in Japan with coronavirus, was said to be feeling well and in good spirits over the weekend.
In the UK, a University of York student and their relative are still being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases centre in Newcastle.
There have been more than 40,000 cases of the virus globally, mostly in China, while the death toll in China now stands at 908.
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However, the number of newly-infected people per day has stabilised, reports suggest.
Meanwhile, a British man in Majorca has also tested positive for coronavirus, while his wife and two daughters tested negative.
According to the government in the Balearic Islands, the family said they had been in contact with a person who tested positive for coronavirus in France.