Number of UK coronavirus cases soars to 456

The number of coronavirus cases in Britain today soared to 456 after health chiefs announced the biggest daily jump in cases since the killer infection hit the UK. 

Eighty-three more patients have been struck down by the deadly infection, meaning the outbreak in the UK has risen five-fold in the space of a week – just 85 cases had been confirmed last Wednesday. 

Fears are mounting that the worsening crisis in the UK is mirroring that of Italy, where 60million people have been placed in lockdown to contain the escalating outbreak.

Schools could be closed, thousands of NHS operations cancelled and troops deployed on streets if the outbreak escalates, under a drastic ‘battle plan’ laid out by Number 10.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak today unveiled a massive £30billion plan to try and contain the crisis, while insisting the government will do ‘everything it can’ to keep the country ‘healthy and financially secure’. 

Senior health officials said yesterday the peak of coronavirus in the UK is expected within the next fortnight and warned that thousands more will be infected now the virus is rapidly spreading on British soil. 

The infection is now transmitting between humans in 30 countries across Europe, including Spain, Germany and France – popular Easter holiday destinations for thousands of Brits looking to jet abroad. 

In other developments to the escalating coronavirus crisis today:

• The Bank of England made an emergency cut in interest rate from 0.75 per cent to 0.25 per cent ahead of the budget to battle coronavirus – sending FTSE 100 to a 2 per cent rise; 
• A British woman died of coronavirus in Indonesia after picking up the virus elsewhere, becoming the country’s first death in the epidemic;
• Boris Johnson is not being tested for coronavirus despite being at a reception with infected health minister Nadine Dorries;
• People travelling back to the UK from coronavirus-hit Italy say the Government is doing next to nothing to protect against them spreading the virus in Britain;
• GPs are using cooking aprons to see coronavirus patients because they don’t have the correct protective equipment, it has been claimed;
• GPs have been told to perform coronavirus tests on any patient with flu-like symptoms if they need to be admitted to hospital, regardless of travel history;
• More than 235,000 people are today calling on the government to close schools across the UK in amid coronavirus fears;
• Hundreds of thousands of care home residents could be ‘cocooned’ to keep them safe from coronavirus, health bosses say;
• Looting thieves have stolen toilet rolls from a petting farm and sanitiser from hospitals amid the coronavirus panic;
• NHS England is ramping up its coronavirus testing capacity so 10,000 swabs can be done a day as it braces for an explosion of cases;
• Premier League matches will go ahead this weekend despite coronavirus cancelling tonight’s Man City v Arsenal game after ‘number’ of Gunners team met a Greek football boss who later tested positive;
• Some 135 Britons will land in the UK this evening after leaving the Grand Princess cruise ship – but they will not be formally quarantined and have been asked only to self-isolate in their own homes;
• The outbreak may have put plans for Princess Beatrice’s wedding in jeopardy amid fears friends and family of her fiance Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi will be unable to jet in from their homes in Italy;
• Iran reported 63 new deaths from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day toll since it announced the first fatalities from the outbreak;
• Poland has closed all schools, museums and cinemas, while Ukraine’s capital city Kiev will shut all educational buildings due to fears of coronavirus spreading;
• A passenger was arrested for licking his hand and wiping it on a handrail on the Belgian subway, forcing the train to be taken off service and disinfected;
• A conference to discuss the impact of coronavirus on business in the US was cancelled – because of a sudden rise in infections in New York;

Mr Sunak today unveiled a massive £30billion plan to stop coronavirus plunging Britain into Italy-style chaos.

Delivering his crucial first Budget, the Chancellor admitted people were ‘worried’ and the killer disease will inevitably have a major impact on the economy. 

The NHS and other public services will get a £5billion emergency response fund, with Mr Sunak vowing he ‘will go further if necessary’.

In a huge £2billion bailout, ministers are footing the sick pay bill for up to two million small and medium sized businesses, covering the 14 days of a quarantine period.  

In a stirring message to the country on the coronavirus threat, Mr Sunak said: ‘We will get through this together.

‘The British people may be worried but they are not daunted… this virus is the key challenge facing our country today.’

The Chancellor added: ‘It’s going to be tough but I’m confident that our economic performance will recover.’

The Budget comes in the shadow of mounting global turmoil over coronavirus, with Italy effectively in lockdown and the risk that the situation could spiral in the rest of Europe. 

The Bank of England this morning slashed its key interest rate by half a per cent to 0.25 per cent.

The crisis was dramatically brought home to politicians overnight as health minister Nadine Dorries became the first MP to test positive, days after attending a reception at No10 with Boris Johnson.

Some are thought to have stayed away from the set-piece today amid fears of contagion in the packed chamber. 

However, the PM has insisted he does not need to be tested as he has no symptoms, and was not within two metres of his minister at the reception. 

Ms Dorries’ coronavirus diagnosis has caused chaos in Parliament today as her two offices were sealed off and one of her staff fell ill, MailOnline can reveal.

Ms Dorries, 62, who began feeling ill on Friday, has said one of her office workers has ‘gone down’ with the killer illness and the Tory MP is now in self-isolation for the next fortnight at home in Gloucestershire. 

This morning she came to the bay window at the front of the sprawling house in the village of Dumbleton and told MailOnline: ‘I am Nadine Dorries but don’t come too close, I’ve got the coronavirus. I’m self isolating.’

Over the weekend she experienced the ‘classic symptoms’ of the disease – a dry cough, high temperature and ‘vice-like’ pain in her chest – and tested positive yesterday.

Labour’s Rachael Maskell met Ms Dorries, who is Minister for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health, today became the first MP to self-isolate for 14 days after she had a meeting with Ms Dorries last Thursday.

Ms Dorries’ symptoms began on March 6, however, the 14-day incubation period means she could have been first exposed to coronavirus on February 21 and met hundreds of people.

Today her parliamentary office in the Norman Shaw North building close to Whitehall and her ministerial office in the Palace of Westminster are both sealed off – as are some corridors leading to them – after the MP and a member of staff fell ill with the virus that has killed six so far in Britain and 4,300 globally.

There is now a mad scramble in Westminster to trace her movements and find who she met or came close to since late February – but Ms Dorries has admitted she is struggling to remember herself. She is a regular in the Commons tea room, library and is a known user of the Portcullis House canteen used by all staff based at Parliament.

The Conservative MP for Mid-Bedfordshire sent a message to the Tory MP WhatsApp group this morning asking them to come forward if they were near her in Parliament because it is ‘hard to remember everyone’. She told colleagues: ‘My staff member has gone down with it too. I haven’t yet given a list to the contact tracers. If you sat next to me in the tea room or library etc please let me know’.

Senior Government ministers could be tested for coronavirus and she was with the Prime Minister at a Downing Street reception to mark International Women’s Day last Thursday, which was also attended by Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss.

Boris Johnson’s spokesman today said he will not be tested because he is not exhibiting symptoms and did not come into close contact with her that night. But it is not known fellow Department of Health ministers, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock, will be tested. As a junior minister she does not attend cabinet or Cobra meetings.

Ms Dorries appeared at the despatch box in the Commons last Wednesday but while the Commons is cleaned every day it has not had a deep clean ahead of today’s budget. The chamber was quite full but there were a few gaps on one of the biggest days in the British political calendar.

Today it emerged that Parliament could could sit with skeleton staff and just 100 MPs in the Commons to avoid spreading coronavirus if the crisis gets worse.

But a UK parliament spokesman said this morning ‘there are no plans to suspend Parliament’. Westminster staff were busy installing 300-plus hand sanitizer dispensers this afternoon.

PIERS MORGAN: Coronavirus has declared war on the world – so we must all stop our selfish whining and remember that you can’t fight – and win – wars without making some sacrifices

This is war.

Make no mistake, for my generation, the COVID-19 coronavirus is the biggest threat to civilian life that we will have experienced since World War 2.

The disease has smashed its way out of China, where it started, and begun to wreak deadly havoc all over the globe.

And it represents a particularly dangerous enemy because we still don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with, or how bad things are going to get.

But what we DO know from what has been happening in China, South Korea, Iran and now Italy is that it has the potential to be utterly devastating.

And unlike a traditional foe, this is not something we can ‘defy’ with conventional weapons.

It’s a virus, so if you come into contact with it, then it doesn’t matter how big or tough you are, you will get infected.

In fact, it’s estimated that 80 percent of the entire planet may end up being infected by this coronavirus.

Most, especially the very young and healthy, should emerge relatively unscathed.

But for older people, and those with underlying health issues, COVID-19 is a very serious virus.

For a whole country as big as Italy to be completely locked down is unprecedented, yet the statistics that led to it explain why the Italian government has taken such dramatic steps.

More than 10,000 Italians have tested positive for the virus, of whom 631 have died.

This represents a mortality rate of over six percent, which is six times higher than normal flu.

And the rate of infection, and deaths, in Italy has been terrifyingly fast.

Just two weeks ago, it had just a few dozen cases.

Now, all 60 million people in Italy are in quarantine, cut off from the rest of the world.

As one leading Italian scientist said last night: ‘It’s like a massive bomb suddenly exploded.’

Experts now fear that bomb is heading to many other places, including the US and the UK, which are both on virtually identical infection rate trajectories as Italy.

The governments of both countries have so far resisted doing much more than tell people to wash their hands (this is good advice) and slash interest rates to prop up collapsing economies.

President Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson seem determined to hang on as long as possible before taking the kind of draconian action Italy has taken, for reasons that frankly bemuse and concern me.

What more do they need to see happen before they realize the scale of this threat and the vital need to get ahead of it?

It seems insane to me that huge events like the Cheltenham racing festival in Britain have been allowed to go ahead today, meaning 250,000 people will be rubbing up against each other in very close proximity.

How does this make any sense when in Italy, all live sport has been cancelled for a month?

In the States, only now are presidential candidates starting to cancel rallies, but many other large gatherings of the public, including huge sports events, are still happening.

To which I ask: why?

We know from countries like China, albeit very late in their case, and Taiwan (which has had very few cases so far) that the key to reducing the impact of COVID-19 is to ‘flatten the curve’ by postponing the number of cases as long as possible to ensure victims can get the right treatment. The lower the strain on health services, the lower the mortality rate.

The best way to do this is social distancing, keeping infected people away from those who are infected.

Yet at the moment, we’re still gathering in vast numbers for non-essential reasons.

I love sport as much as anyone, but my football team Arsenal has had its Premier League match against Manchester City tonight postponed because the owner of Greek side Olympiakos, who we played 12 days ago, has tested positive for COVID-19.

So why is Cheltenham going ahead given there is an almost certain chance that infected people will be among the crowds?

And why is the British Parliament still in session today given that one of its members has tested positive for coronavirus?

There is no consistency to the coronavirus defence by either government.

It’s like they are sticking their heads in the sand and hoping to dodge a bullet.

But America and Britain won’t dodge a bullet.

Both countries have rapidly expanding infection rates, and we know for an absolute cast iron certainty these rates will now massively accelerate very quickly.

So, the cold hard truth is that the coronavirus genie is out of the bottle now and no amount of money can stop it.

And I dread to think what’s going to happen when the US and UK health services suddenly come under the kind of intense pressure currently being seen in Italy, which has a very good health care system but is now crippling at the seams.

I just hope and pray those charged with protecting our health and safety know what they’re doing and making the right decisions.

But there’s one thing we can ALL do and that’s get a collective grip, stop over-reacting and UNDER-reacting – which can even more irresponsible – and adopt a wartime mentality.

That means making sacrifices.

In many ways, we’re the most self-absorbed generation ever to walk the earth despite, or perhaps because, most statistics on things like health, war, poverty, social mobility indicate there’s never been a healthier, safer, more prosperous time to be alive.

This has bred a complacency that is now about to be sorely tested.

To put it bluntly, we’re all going to have stop being so bloody selfish.

I’ve been disgusted to see so many younger people on social media saying things like ‘Stop scare-mongering! It only kills the elderly and sick!’ as if somehow we don’t need to care for the most vulnerable people in our society because we’re alright, Jack.

It’s not about us, the younger (I’m 54, so only just about qualify for this category in coronavirus terms) people who should be OK.

It’s about the very people being so casually and callously dismissed – the elderly and sick.

If Italy’s infection and mortality rates spread to the US and UK, then hundreds of thousands, possibly, god forbid, millions, of people in those groups are going to die.

The virus, as it did in China and Italy, is now spreading exponentially through both countries, mostly silently with many carriers not knowing they’re infected.

There seems little doubt our COVID-19 bombs are about to explode.

So, let’s stop the ‘stop scare-mongering’ bullsh*t.

There are very real reasons to feel extremely concerned about this.

But let’s not panic either.

What is needed now, just as it was in WW2, is calm heads, common-sense behavior and stoicism.

I can understand why people feel the need to stock up on basic essentials, given many of us will inevitably have to self-isolate.

But it is stunningly stupid, and grotesquely selfish, to see so many people still buying up masks in stores, despite being told they make no difference to the risk of infection, and despite being told it may deprive the health workers who need them most from having them.

Just as it is repulsive to hear so many moaning about possibly having to forego their trips to the football, cinema, ski slopes or favorite restaurant for a few weeks or months.

Are your elderly loved ones not worth skipping a movie?

No, we’re all going to have to make sacrifices for a bit.

If that means postponing holidays, missing some sport, or drinking at home rather than the pub, then so be it.

What the hell do you think our grandparents had to do during the war?

Did they moan and sulk, and throw their pampered little toys out of the pram?

No, they stiffened their lips, cracked on, and put the national interest above their own personal comfort.

I can’t believe we’re still even debating whether to still hold major international sporting events this summer like the European Football Championships and Olympics.

There’s no chance of coronavirus blowing out before then, and it’s hard to imagine anything dumber than inviting people from COVID-19 ravaged countries all over the world to all come together to watch athletes jump over bars or kick a ball.

So, postpone them now and give everyone time to make other plans.

The bottom line is this: life’s going to get rough for a bit, as rough as most of us have known, and a lot of people are going to get seriously ill or die.

But if we come together, act sensibly, put the health of others before our own selfish pursuit of pleasure, and show some gritty resolve, then we will come through it.

It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.

It’s time for the kind of Bulldog spirit personified by Winston Churchill.

‘If you’re going through hell, keep going,’ he urged as the Nazis blitzed allied forces.

But it’s another of his quotes that seems more pertinent now: ‘Things are not always right because they are hard, but if they are right one must not mind if they are also hard.’

So, stop your bloody whining and do the right thing.