A British man who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died after being infected with coronavirus, Japanese authorities said today, making him the first Briton to die of the illness.
The man was among 78 Britons quarantined on the cruise liner which became one of the world’s largest clusters of virus cases when 705 people tested positive during a failed two-week lockdown.
Wall Street stocks tumbled in opening trading today, suffering another steep decline with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 700 points in the first 15 minutes and $5trillion wiped off the world economy this week as fears of the virus spreading rocked global markets.
It came as six new coronavirus patients were confirmed in the UK in the space of 24 hours, as cases of the deadly illness accelerate around the country and Britain ramps up its fight against the virus.
Boris Johnson has today finally stepped in to take charge of the spiralling crisis by agreeing to chair a Cobra emergency meeting arranged for Monday.
But furious politicians slammed the ‘part-time’ Prime Minister, saying it shouldn’t take three days for the meeting to take place, while former chancellor George Osborne demanded that the government go on a ‘war footing’ to reassure the ‘fearful’ public with regular Cobra meetings and daily press briefings.
Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt today warned Britain was at a ‘tipping point’, saying the NHS would struggle with a pandemic and that hundreds of thousands of lives could be at risk if this outbreak escalates.
Pressure is growing on Number 10 to take action as countries around the world have started to implement drastic prevention policies. Switzerland today banned all events involving more than 1,000 people, while Japan has shut schools for two weeks and Italy put 50,000 people in 11 towns into lockdown when cases escalated.
Coronavirus is already taking its toll on everyday British life, with some schools and businesses closed and fears growing that major events such as Ascot, the Grand National and the Premier League football season could be shelved.
The crisis, which is escalating outside of China, has rocked world financial markets – £265billion has been wiped off of London’s FTSE100 this week. Globally, shares are down about $6trillion (£4.7trillion) overall this week and Wall Street is also bracing itself after Dow Jones plunged another 1,000 points for the third day this week.
A British man who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship (pictured in Yokohama) has died after being infected with coronavirus, Japanese authorities confirmed today

Nineteen patients have now been confirmed in the UK, after England confirmed two travellers had tested positive yesterday and Northern Ireland last night announced its first case. Scotland has yet to be struck down
As the coronavirus crisis tightened its grip on Britain today:
- A World Health Organization spokesperson said the virus could eventually infect every country on the planet and that it ‘has pandemic potential’
- All 168 British tourists at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel remain locked down in quarantine while the first batch of guests to leave have been pictured undergoing medical tests before checking out
- British airlines easyJet and British Airways have said they will start cancelling flights because of a fall in demand triggered by the global coronavirus crisis
- A correspondent for ITV’s Good Morning Britain shared a video of him walking through Heathrow arrivals from a Milan flight without going through any special checks
- Pope Francis is still feeling ‘slightly unwell’ and has cancelled his official audiences today, the Vatican has said
- Newcastle United Football Club have banned their players from shaking hands with each other amid the fear of coronavirus
- A London teacher who caught the coronavirus has revealed both her parents, who lived in the Chinese city of Wuhan – where the outbreak began, have died
- A pet Pomeranian dog has tested positive for the coronavirus after its owner became infected with the killer disease in Hong Kong
The Japanese Ministry of Health said the first Briton to die of coronavirus was the sixth person to succumb to the illness after travelling on the Diamond Princess.
A total of 705 of the ship’s 3,711 passengers and crew were found to be infected during the lockdown, sparking severe criticism of how Japanese authorities had handled the case.
Passengers were confined to their cabins on board the ship in what scientists described as an ideal breeding ground for the virus, with tourists also voicing concerns about the conditions on board.
The UK government eventually chartered a flight to airlift 32 people home from the cruise ship, but dozens of Britons remained in Japan. Four of them were in hospital after testing positive, while others chose not to join the flight.
The four known British patients included honeymooner Alan Steele, who has since recovered and flown back to Britain where he is under quarantine in the Wirral.
Only two of the other three British patients were named: David and Sally Abel, from Northamptonshire, who are in hospital in Japan. Mr Abel yesterday posted footage of himself dancing in his hospital ward.
Health bosses never named the fourth British patient, who was left behind for treatment in Japan.
Japanese media said today that the British victim was one of the 705 people who tested positive during the quarantine, apparently excluding the possibility that he was infected after leaving the ship.
Shortly after the news of the man’s death broke today, health minister Jo Churchill said she was aware a British man who had been on board the Diamond Princess was ‘very poorly’.
She told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: ‘The Foreign Office are supporting the family of a British man who has been very poorly and was a passenger on board the Diamond Princess.
‘I haven’t had confirmation, because obviously I’m on the telephone to you, but I was aware there was a gentleman who was very, very poorly, and I’m sure like me your thoughts and sympathies go out to his family at this time.’
She added: ‘It is my understanding this British national doesn’t in fact reside in the UK, but lives elsewhere in the world. That makes absolutely no difference to his family. Our sympathies and thoughts are with them at this difficult time.’
Earlier today, a Japanese woman in her 70s who had also been on the Diamond Princess was revealed as the fifth cruise ship passenger to die from the virus. The British man is the sixth, and the first foreigner.
Cruise operator Princess Cruises acknowledged the man’s death today and offered ‘sincere condolences’ to the passenger’s family and friends.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Japan and are in contact with local authorities. Our sympathies and thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.’

A bus carrying passengers from the Diamond Princess – in this case passengers who were about to be flown home by the Israeli government – drives away from the cruise ship in Yokohama last week
It comes after Wales confirmed its first case and two more patients in England were diagnosed. It follows three cases which were announced yesterday.
Welsh health chiefs revealed the patient, believed to be in their thirties from Swansea who was taken to a specialist NHS hospital in England, caught the virus in northern Italy, which is at the centre of Europe’s crisis that has engulfed Britain and the rest of the continent in fear.
Both new cases in England were infected in Iran, which has been rocked by its own crisis. The death toll in Iran rose by eight today, reaching 34, while the number of confirmed cases rose from 245 to 388 in an outbreak which forced the stoppage of Friday prayers in Tehran and the heavily-affected holy city of Qom today.
The patients were rushed to the Royal Free Hospital in London for urgent NHS treatment. Officials refused to reveal their age, gender or where they were diagnosed.
Nineteen patients have now been confirmed in the UK, after England confirmed two travellers had tested positive yesterday and Northern Ireland last night announced its first case. Scotland has yet to be struck down.
One of the English cases yesterday is thought to be a 43-year-old mother in Buxton who caught the virus at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in Tenerife, where hundreds of British holidaymakers have been quarantined.
The other is thought to be a man in Surrey who was infected in Italy and flew to Britain from Milan, raising fears the COVID-19 disease is spreading outside of the 11 towns locked down in the north of the country.
Questions are now being asked as to why passengers on flights from the Italian city, which is the closest airport to the locked-down area of northern Italy, are sailing through British airports without any health checks.
Italy is the site of Europe’s worst outbreak so far, with 650 people infected and 17 dead, but authorities in some less-affected areas were today re-opening schools and museums in an effort to bring daily life back to normal.
It comes as emergency plans are being drawn up by British health officials to contain the coronavirus. Schools could be closed for at least two months, major gigs and music festivals cancelled. The entire British football season could even be declared ‘null and void’, with Liverpool potentially missing out on the Premier League title if matches are scrapped.
More than 83,000 people worldwide have been struck down with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The death toll stands at almost 2,900 – up from just 200 at the end of January.

A woman enters Buxton’s Burbage Primary School, which has been closed until Monday due to a confirmed case of coronavirus amongst the school’s ‘parent population’

Both new cases in England were infected in Iran and were rushed to the Royal Free Hospital in London for urgent NHS treatment

More than 83,000 people worldwide have been struck down with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The death toll stands at almost 2,900 – up from just 200 at the end of January

More than 800 cases of the killer coronavirus have now been recorded across Europe, with 655 of them in Italy – which has locked down 11 towns in a desperate attempt to contain the crisis
Dr Frank Atherton, the chief medical officer for Wales, confirmed the country’s first coronavirus case this morning, in a patient who caught the virus in Italy.
He said ‘all appropriate measures are being taken’, to prevent the spread of the virus on British soil. It is unclear which hospital they were taken to but Wales Online reports that the patient has links to Swansea.
Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, confirmed both new cases in the country had caught the killer SARS-CoV-2 virus in Iran. Both were taken to the Royal Free Hospital in London.
The Northern Ireland case confirmed last night was a woman who caught the virus in Italy and travelled back via Dublin with her child in the past two days.
Aer Lingus today confirmed that the patient had travelled with the airline from northern Italy to Dublin.
‘Aer Lingus is co-operating fully with the HSE in relation to the Covid-19 developments and is liaising with the Department of Foreign Affairs, other government departments and the relevant authorities as required,’ a statement said.
Authorities have admitted that people who may have come into contact with her have been contacted.
Ireland’s health minister has also met with the environmental health officers at Dublin Airport who are providing information on coronavirus to people flying into the country.
All previous 13 coronavirus cases in the UK had links to the Far East, with the latest wave of cases around the world centred outside of China. The infection has yet to spread on British soil.
Two of the new cases caught the virus in Iran, which has been battered by its own outbreak which has seen its own its vice president Masoumeh Ebtekar – known as Screaming Mary for her role as a spokeswoman for the 1979 hostage-takers during the US embassy crisis – become infected, while the Islamic republic’s former ambassador to the Vatican, Hadi Khosroshahi,has died. A World Health Organization spokesperson said the virus could eventually infect every country on the planet and that it ‘has pandemic potential’.
Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt today warned that the UK was approaching a ‘tipping point’ in its attempts to fend off the disease.
He said that in a worst case scenario seven out of 10 people in the UK could catch the illness and that hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake.
Mr Hunt told Sky News: ‘Our worst case scenario is 70 per cent becoming affected. Hundreds of thousands of lives could depend whether we could keep the infection levels down to 10 per cent, or five per cent.’
He said he believed most members of the public would co-operate with containment measures – which in recent days have emerged as school and office closures, sporting event cancellations, and the stopping of large public gatherings, if an outbreak takes hold – but hoped drastic steps wouldn’t be necessary.
The UK is at a ‘critical’ moment, Mr Hunt said, and he added: ‘we do need to prepare ourselves for what might happen.’

A Good Morning Britain correspondent shared video of himself and fellow passengers from Milan, the closest airport to Italy’s coronavirus crisis, passing through Heathrow without any health checks

The coronavirus outbreak has devastated markets around the world with London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong all hit hard overnight and this morning

Traders leaving the London Stock Exchange this morning after the FTSE 100 plummeted because of coronavirus panic

‘Slightly unwell’: Pope Francis, pictured on Ash Wednesday this week when he appeared to have a cold, has scrapped his official audiences today
Labour today accused Mr Johnson of acting as a ‘part-time prime minister’, saying he should be taking action immediately to take control of the situation after he announced he would chair a Cobra meeting on Monday.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘Our part-time prime minister needs to get a grip of this escalating situation quickly. It shouldn’t take another three days for this meeting to take place.’
Former chancellor George Osborne said Mr Johnson should be chairing a daily Cobra meeting, saying the public needed to know that ministers had the situation under control.
‘The British Government now needs to go onto a “war footing” with the coronavirus: daily NHS press briefings, regular Cobra meetings chaired by the PM, ministers on all major media shows,’ Mr Osborne, who now edits the London Evening Standard, tweeted.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘With the NHS already so stretched, it’s gobsmacking that the Prime Minister has delayed chairing Cobra for so long.
‘Johnson seems like he’d rather bury his head in the sand than hear for himself what the experts are saying and what his ministers are doing.’
Downing Street said officials from the Department of Health, Public Health England and other relevant departments were meeting on a daily basis to discuss the crisis, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock had been chairing a weekly Cobra meeting. Those will now be stepped up to take place twice weekly.
‘The Prime Minister is keen to chair Cobra on Monday to ensure that everything that can be done is being done,’ the spokesman said.
It is thought one of the two cases confirmed yesterday is a a 43-year-old administrative assistant in Buxton, a Derbyshire town which yesterday went into lockdown because of a confirmed case.
The mother – reportedly whisked off to a hospital in Liverpool by medics in hazmat suits alongside her boyfriend – has a child at the Burbage Primary School, which was shut until Monday to undergo a deep clean.
A BBC reporter who has a son at the school was told the parent’s child did not go to Tenerife but that they did attend classes on Monday and Tuesday.
Elderly residents in Buxton, 30miles (48km) south of Manchester, yesterday spoke of being scared about going to the shops because of the coronavirus.
Health officials admitted the parent caught the virus in Tenerife. They are thought to have stayed at the quarantined H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel – a four-star seafront resort paralysed by the killer coronavirus after four Italian holidaymakers tested positive for the infection.
Spanish officials imposed a two-week quarantine on Monday, in a desperate attempt to contain the deadly virus.
A total of 168 British holidaymakers are still trapped in the 500-room hotel alongside at least 100 guests from other countries.
Before they will be cleared to go, British guests voiced their frustration at the ‘awful’ situation and begged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to rescue them.
The global crisis has rocked world financial markets and London’s FTSE100 has had dropped to the lowest level since the 2008 financial crash.
The FTSE100 market dropped more than three per cent this morning, with more than £200billion wiped off London shares this week.
Bank of England boss Mark Carney warned that Britain could be set for an economic growth downgrade.

Health personnel wearing protection clothing check the temperature of a guest at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife today

Health personnel check the temperatures of a guest leaving the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, Tenerife today

Medical professionals and representatives from TUI assist families after they were released from lockdown at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in La Caleta, Tenerife today

In a picture of what could be to come, Inter Milan’s San Siro stadium was empty for the team’s Europa League match as sporting fixtures could be played behind closed doors or even cancelled to avoid spreading illness
A growing list of major companies are issuing profit warnings and say factory shutdowns in China are disrupting supply chains.
British airlines easyJet and British Airways today announced they will start cancelling flights because of a fall in demand triggered by the global coronavirus crisis.
easyJet said flights to and from Italy were most likely to be affected and that it was too early to say whether this year’s summer holidays would be affected.
The owners of British Airways said the virus, which is now surging in South Korea, Iran and Europe more than it is in China, will mean it earns less money this year.
Airlines are reported to be flying blind into a crisis of unknown severity and duration as people cancel holidays or avoid travel for fear of catching the virus abroad.
Emergency plans are being drawn up by health officials to contain the coronavirus, which could see schools closed for at least two months.
England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty revealed an unprecedented ban on large public gatherings could be required to fight a global pandemic.
The most extreme measure could be to mirror the decision to shut Japan’s entire school system, which will close from Monday for a month until April.
Across the UK, at least a dozen schools have closed over fears of the virus spreading while at least 20 more – including Harrow School and Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s private school in southwest London – have sent pupils and teachers home for a fortnight after coming down with colds and coughs after ski trips to coronavirus-hit Italy over half term.
A shutdown would see millions of parents, including key workers such as surgeons, nurses and paramedics, forced to stay at home to care for their children.
Professor Whitty admitted it is ‘just a matter of time’ until coronavirus spreads more widely and quicker through the UK.
Speaking at a Nuffield Trust summit, he said: ‘If this becomes a global epidemic then the UK will get it.
‘And if it does not become a global epidemic, the UK is perfectly capable of containing and getting rid of individual cases leading to onward transmission.’

Boris Johnson posed for pictures with doctors on his surprise visit to Kettering General Hospital last night

Former Chancellor George Osborne today called for the Government to adopt a ‘war footing’ with the coronavirus, urging for daily NHS press briefings and regular COBRA meetings chaired by Prime Minister Boris Johnson

One of the English cases yesterday is thought to be a 43-year-old mother in Buxton who caught the virus at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in Tenerife, where hundreds of British holidaymakers have been quarantined. She has a child at the Burbage Primary School (pictured)

The Buxton mother was reportedly whisked off to a hospital in Liverpool by medics in hazmat suits alongside her boyfriend – health officials confirmed one of the two cases in England that were confirmed had been taken to the Liverpool hospital

A medic in protective clothes walks to a house close to the scene of the Buxton case yesterday, after one coronavirus case was confirmed in the Derbyshire town
But he said onward transmission was likely, adding: ‘If it is something which is containable, the UK can contain it.
‘If it is not containable, it will be non-containable everywhere and then it is coming our way.’
The fightback could include ‘reducing mass gatherings and school closures’, with Premier League matches either under threat or played behind closed doors.
The London Marathon and the Grand National in April could also be at risk because of the large number of spectators.
And this summer’s Euro 2020 tournament, which is being played in cities across the continent including London, Glasgow and Rome is under review.
Theatre performances, gigs and music festivals such as Glastonbury could also be banned or pared back if the UK fails to get a grip on the crisis.
The NHS has said it is well prepared for the growing threat but senior doctors have admitted that they could have to ration care.
Under protocol dubbed ‘Three Wise Men’, a hospital’s most senior consultants would meet daily and decide which patients would get beds and ventilators.
It means that vulnerable people such as the elderly and already seriously ill would be given less priority than younger and healthier patients.
It comes as a London teacher who caught the coronavirus has revealed both her parents, who lived in Wuhan, have died since the outbreak began.
Muying Shi, 37, was visiting her parents in the Chinese city at the centre of the epidemic, which is her hometown, when the virus started to spread.
She was trapped in the lockdown and then caught COVID-19 herself and was taken into isolation in a hospital after a CT scan revealed signs of infection in her lungs.
Her father, Xianging, has since died from the illness, which causes severe pneumonia and can be particularly deadly for old people.
And her mother, Liping, who had end-stage cancer, could not get proper medical treatment because Wuhan’s hospitals were so overloaded with coronavirus patients.
Ms Shi is still in Wuhan, where authorities are still preventing people from leaving the city, and said she is recovered and just waiting to return home to the UK.
It comes as one of England’s coronavirus patients managed to fly into the UK from Milan without going through any health checks, according to reports.
A case confirmed yesterday was believed to be in a Surrey man who had flown home without visiting any of the towns at the centre of Italy’s quarantine zone.
Flights from the Italian city, which is the closest airport to the locked-down area of northern Italy, land in the UK dozens of times a day.
But a correspondent for ITV’s Good Morning Britain shared a video of him walking through Heathrow arrivals from a Milan flight without going through any special checks.
More than 650 people have now been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Italy, with almost all of the cases declared in a devastating surge which started last weekend.
There are now fears that many more people will have become infected with the virus while on half-term trips to the Alps and brought it in through British airports, and that people continue to travel into the UK from the disease-hit region.

Workers stop preparations for the upcoming 90th Geneva International Motor Show in Switzerland after it was cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak

A view of cars inside an exhibition hall as workers stopped preparations for the 90th Geneva International Motor Show, which was scheduled to begin on March 5
Schools could be closed for eight weeks and sporting fixtures such as FA Cup, Grand National and London Marathon postponed under emergency plan to contain coronavirus as three new cases in one day are confirmed in Britain
Emergency plans are being drawn up by health officials to contain the coronavirus, which could see schools closed for at least two months and major sporting events, gigs and music festivals cancelled.
As cases of the deadly virus in Britain hit 19 today, England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty revealed an unprecedented ban on large public gatherings could be required to fight a global pandemic.
Six British patients have fallen ill in the past 24 hours – today two people who had been in Iran tested positive and are in the infectious diseases unit at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
Wales also has its first case this morning after patient from Swansea had travelled back from northern Italy with coronavirus.
There were three new cases in the UK yesterday. Although it is not confirmed, it appears the mother of a child at a Derbyshire school has tested positive after coming back from Tenerife, leading to the closure of Burbage Primary School in Buxton.
A second patient, believed to be a man from Surrey, was diagnosed yesterday after returning from Milan after a ski trip to the Italian Alps.
And Northern Ireland also had its first case last night – a woman who had come back from northern Italy via Dublin.
The most extreme measure could be to mirror the decision to shut Japan’s entire school system, which will close from Monday for a month until April.
A UK shutdown would see millions of parents, including key workers such as surgeons, nurses and paramedics, forced to stay at home to care for their children.
Professor Whitty admitted it is ‘just a matter of time’ until coronavirus spreads more widely and quicker through the UK – and the fightback could include ‘reducing mass gatherings and school closures’, with Premier League and FA Cup matches either under threat or played behind closed doors.
The London Marathon and the Grand National in April could also be at risk because of the large number of spectators – and this summer’s Euro 2020 tournament, which is being played in cities across the continent including London, Glasgow and Rome – the capital of coronavirus-hit Italy – is under review.

Coronavirus fears have gripped Britain, with one man opting to wear a gas mask while travelling on the London Underground as he waited for a train yesterday
Theatre performances, gigs and music festivals such as Glastonbury could also be banned or pared back if the UK fails to get a grip on the crisis.
Today Wales’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr Frank Atherton, confirmed that a patient has tested positive for Coronavirus after returning from northern Italy.
50 of the 168 British guests at the Tenerife hotel at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak were allowed to leave last night before their two-week quarantine was completed sparking fears they could bring the disease home with them. Jet2 is refusing to fly them home until mid-March.
The NHS has said it is well prepared for the growing threat but senior doctors have admitted that they could have to ration care and focus on those most likely to survive and former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ‘The NHS would find it hard to cope if the pandemic took off’.
Under protocol dubbed ‘Three Wise Men’, a hospital’s most senior consultants would meet daily and decide which patients would get beds and ventilators based on those most likely to recover.
It means that vulnerable people such as the elderly and already seriously ill would be given less priority than younger and healthier patients.
The crisis has rocked world financial markets and London’s FTSE100, which immediately dropped three per cent when it opened yesterday having had £200billion wiped off its value this week taking it to a low level last seen in the 2008 financial crash.
Today Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the economy has already been hit and growth could be downgraded.
Emergency plans are being drawn up by the authorities will be required if there is a global pandemic, but medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said they are not needed yet.
Professor Whitty is cautious about school closures unless absolutely necessary because of the huge impact on society and the economy.
He said: ‘We’re not saying we will do them, we have to look at them and say, ‘How likely are they to work?’.’ Yesterday, the Government announced there had been three more confirmed cases in the UK bringing the total number to 16, although there have not been any deaths.

Health personnel wearing protection clothing assist guests as they leave the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain today
Buxton in Derbyshire is on lockdown as the GP surgery shut, a primary school closed and residents were left too afraid to visit the shops because of a confirmed coronavirus case in a parent who is thought to have travelled to a hotel in Tenerife which has been paralysed by the killer infection.
The unidentified patient is believed to have a child at Burbage Primary School in Buxton, whose headteacher today announced it had shut for a ‘deep clean’ because one of the ‘parent population’ was infected.
It’s thought they stayed at the four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in Tenerife, where hundreds of holidaymakers – including 160 Britons – are currently being quarantined because of an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.
Zoe Jones, 26, saw several ambulances visit a property in town on Wednesday night. Paramedics in hazard-style suits helped a person into the vehicle and they were taken to a hospital in Liverpool.
Miss Jones, of Sandbach, Cheshire said: ‘I was coming home and two ambulances and two emergency response vehicles go past.
‘They weren’t going really fast but they had the blue lights on.
‘One ambulance was at the front and the emergency response teams were in the middle with the other ambulance at the back.
‘I thought it was a bit odd and wondered what was going on.’
She added: ‘They then stopped at a Morrisons supermarket car park. All the men got out and put on these white suits.
‘Then they went to a house and parked right by it. The police blocked off the road.
‘They brought someone out – they didn’t seems to need help. It was all a bit odd and I knew it was something to do with coronavirus.
‘I was really intrigued so followed them and they drove towards Liverpool. When they got to hospital a policeman opened a loading bay and they went up in that.’
The Buxton primary school announced its decision to shut on Wednesday night and informed parents with a WhatsApp message. School bosses emphasised that the decision had been taken for the safety and protection of children and teachers.
A second patient, believed to be a man from Surrey, was diagnosed yesterday after returning from a ski trip to northern Italy.
The third case was confirmed in Northern Ireland and the individual had also recently come back from northern Italy via Dublin.
It came as the World Health Organisation warned that many countries were ‘simply not ready’ to contain the virus.
Professor Whitty, who has been the chief medical officer since October, is in charge of drawing up the Government’s emergency plans for containing the virus.
Yesterday he shed light on some of the options being considered by officials, should the number of cases in the UK suddenly escalate.
He said at the Nuffield Trust Summit in Windsor, Berkshire, he thought it was only a ‘matter of time’ before Britons started catching the disease from each other on a larger scale.
This is known medically as ‘onward transmission’ and so far in the UK the cases have only occurred in individuals who have either been to a virus hotspot country themselves, or come into close contact with someone else who has. But Professor Whitty said: ‘If it is something that is containable, the UK can contain it. If it is not containable, it will be not containable everywhere and then it is coming our way.’
Britons have been rushing to buy canned food, bottled water and hand sanitiser. Some Superdrug and Boots stores have sold out of hand gels and face masks.
Pictures shared on social media showed empty shelves in shops with people also rushing to buy nappies and baby wipes and even stockpiling alcohol.
It also emerged yesterday that a suspected coronavirus patient had been told to sit in a packed hospital waiting room without a protective mask after he called 111.
Paul Godfrey, from Walsall, said he showed clear symptoms of the illness after returning from Milan but was told the city wasn’t on the ‘target list’. He took himself to Walsall Manor Hospital at 10.30am on Monday and waited for ten minutes with other patients before staff in hazmat suits then whisked him to an isolated cubicle.
Professor Whitty said the key was for scientists to now work out what could ‘delay’ or ‘flatten’ the outbreak. He added: ‘Everybody knows that the kinds of things you consider are reducing mass gatherings, school closures which may or may not be appropriate for this type of virus. We don’t know yet, we need to find that out.
‘There are several things – to be clear, we’re not saying we will do them, we have to look at them and say, ‘How likely are they to work and what’s our evidence base here? What’s the social cost of this?’
‘Because one of the things that’s clear with this virus, much more so than with the flu, is anything we do we’re going to have to do for quite a long time – probably more than two months.’
The professor is understood to be only considering school closures if they are unavoidable. If that were to happen, many parents would be forced to take time off to look after their children including doctors, nurses and paramedics – who would otherwise be treating coronavirus patients – and social care workers.
However, thousands of schoolchildren across the UK could spend another day at home today after being sent by headteachers panicked by the virus fears.
Despite pleas from Health Secretary Matt Hancock not to close schools unless someone tested positive, the number closed entirely for the rest of the week reached double figures yesterday.
Among them is £19,000-a-year Dulwich Prep School in south-east London which blamed delays in NHS test results after several pupils fell ill after foreign holidays.
In Japan, authorities have ordered all schools to close until the end of March. And in France president Emmanuel Macron has also warned that the country was on the brink of an epidemic.
Dozens of British guests at a Tenerife hotel hit by a coronavirus outbreak were allowed to leave last night (THUR), prompting confusion over their fate between Spain and the UK.
Authorities on the island said that the group of 50 Britons had showed no symptoms and did not mix with the group of infected Italians who kick-started the scare.
But in a sign of mounting diplomatic tensions, the move caught British authorities by surprise and they were urgently seeking clarification about the situation last night (THUR).
It came only hours after the Government insisted there were no plans to bring more than 100 Britons trapped in the H10 Costa Adeje Palace back to the UK.
Those given permission to leave by Tenerife authorities had arrived at the hotel on Monday. It remains unclear if they will be asked to self-isolate upon returning to the UK.
The remaining 118 British guests at the hotel have criticised the quarantine conditions inside, with guests allowed to roam around freely and interact.
Some said they had been left ‘terrified’ after both Spanish and British authorities refused to say how long they will be locked inside.
Concerns about the spread of the virus were heightened yesterday, when it emerged that one of two new cases in the UK was a guest who had already left the resort and returned home.
Despite the hotel scare entering its fourth day, Public Health England yesterday said it had sent a ‘health protection specialist’ to Spain to work with authorities.
‘This includes understanding spread of the virus within the hotel and how the Spanish authorities are monitoring the situation,’ the agency said.
A 60-year-old guest from Derbyshire last night called for the Government to ‘get us out of here’.
The businessman, on holiday with his wife, said that he had repeatedly asked the hotel and British consular staff to supply him with medication amid fears about his ‘deteriorating’ health.
He said: ‘There are some pretty angry Britons here. The mood is changing and we don’t feel safe here.’
‘The way this has been handled is not safe and inconsistent. We have a responsibility to Britain not to bring this back and if it goes anything like the cruise ship that’s more likely to happen.’
After initially being advised to stay in their rooms, guests at the hotel have been allowed to roam freely for the last 48 hours.
Lara Pennington, from Manchester, is staying at the hotel with her two young children and elderly parents-in-law, one of whom has an underlying heart condition.
She said: ‘We feel abandoned and are very frightened.’
A spokesman for the regional government said that none of the 700 estimated remaining guests who have been asked to take their temperature twice a day had shown any symptoms.
Downing Street defended the response to the situation saying that the Foreign Office had been in touch with more than 100 British nationals at the hotel.
AN FCO spokesman said: ‘We are urgently seeking clarification from the Canary Island authorities following their announcement that 130 tourists of different nationalities will be granted permission to leave the Costa Adeje Palace Hotel. We continue to offer support to all British nationals at the hotel.’
Markets are quaking because of coronavirus’ spread, as it reached New Zealand and sub-Saharan Africa yesterday. Cases in Italy have hit 650.
The US benchmark Dow Jones index fell by 4.4 per cent, or more than 1,100 points, the biggest one-day points drop in history.
It comes as almost £190billion has been wiped off the value of Britain’s biggest companies so far this week.
Warnings over the damage the virus could inflict on the global economy triggered panic selling, dragging the value of investments and pension funds down.
The FTSE 100 index, made up of the UK’s largest blue chip firms, yesterday fell to a 13-month low after its biggest percentage drop in four-and-a-half years. It shed 3.49 per cent, or £61.8billion, taking the total hit to £152.5billion so far this week.
The FTSE 350, which is made up of Britain’s biggest 350 firms, shed £77billion yesterday – taking the total fall to £188.6billon since markets opened on Monday.
Airlines and travel companies are among those worst hit as flights have been cancelled and businesses have imposed travel bans on staff. EasyJet lost a quarter of its value this week, falling almost 8 per cent yesterday. British Airways owner IAG was also down nearly 8 per cent while Tui fell 8.2 per cent.
Globally, more than £2.8trillion has been wiped off stockmarkets over the last six days of trading. European stocks slumped 10 per cent since hitting record highs last week. In the US the S&P 500 index suffered its worst day since 2011 as Wall Street was on course for its worst week since the financial crisis.
US President Donald Trump tried to calm the fears by vowing that the White House would ‘spend whatever’s appropriate’ to combat the turmoil.
Savings and pension firms have pleaded with customers not to panic as the value of their investments has fallen alarmingly.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the swings are ‘frightening but not unusual’. ‘This is not in the same league as some of the falls we have seen in the past,’ he said.
But with stockmarkets in turmoil, Aston Martin, brewing giant AB InBev and Microsoft joined a growing chorus of firms to warn of the virus’s impact on their businesses. AB InBev predicted its steepest decline in quarterly profit for at least a decade.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted US companies would not post any growth in earnings this year due to the virus’s spread.