Prime Minister says Cobra committee will meet to discuss coronavirus
The government’s Cobra emergency committee will meet today to discuss Coronavirus, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said.
Public Health England yesterday said that 14 people in the UK had been tested for the virus, with five testing negative and the others awaiting results.
It follows the news that the Great Wall of China will be closed from tomorrow to prevent a further spread of the virus which has put several cities into lockdown.
The closure of some sections of the wall follows the cancellation of seven film premieres and Shanghai Disneyland.
Additionally the Chinese government has ordered travel agencies to suspend the sales of package tours.
The Chinese authorities stepped up measures to contain the virus with travel bans in ten cities, affecting 60m people, and shutting temples over the Lunar New Year.
A patient with the virus died in a neighbouring province, Hebei, yesterday, marking the first death outside the central province.
The Shanghai government has also urged people coming from “key areas” to stay at home or under centralised quarantine for two weeks.
The virus has killed 25 people and infected around 830 people, leading to the rapid construction of a new hospital in the city of Wuhan, where the virus originated.
All of the deaths have been in China but the virus has also been detected in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the US.
Thailand today confirmed its fifth case in the second instance in which a patient was not detected at the airport before entering the country.
The deputy public health minister Sathit Patucha told Reuters: “The patient is a 33-year-old woman from Wuhan on vacation.”
Yesterday the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the new strain of coronavirus an emergency for China but stopped short of declaring it an international emergency.
Investors were comforted by the WHO’s announcement but the markets are still set to end the week lower for the first time in over a month.