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| Coronavirus: Italy death toll rises to 17 - live updates | |
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| Follow latest news as 50 Britons allowed to leave Tenerife hotel, UK chief medical officer says pandemic could close school for two months and experts say virus could cause 2008-level economic damage | |
| NHS doctors have told the Guardian of their experiences of the government’s handling of coronavirus, warning that they have concerns about how patients who may have been infected are being managed. | |
| James (not his real name), a GP in Derbyshire, where one of the latest British coronavirus cases is thought to have been located, described the Department of Health’s response to the virus as “ridiculous” and “negligent”. | |
| He said none of his patients who had travelled back from at-risk countries had been given any information at airports or sea ports on what to do if they developed symptoms of coronavirus. | |
| James said his practice had seen patients arriving back from affected areas, some of whom had been on cruises around many regions experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, who had not been given any information on what to do if they developed symptoms. | |
| Read more here | |
| Around 50 Britons quarantined at a coronavirus-hit Tenerife hotel have been told they can leave, the PA news agency understands.Some 168 British nationals are among hundreds of guests being kept at the four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace in the south west of the Spanish island after at least four guests, including an Italian doctor, tested positive for coronavirus.Those who can leave are understood to have arrived on Monday, after the guests who were diagnosed had already left. | |
| Overall, 130 guests from 11 countries have been told they can leave by Spanish authorities. | |
| ‘Please visit Chinatown’: coronavirus fears empty San Francisco district | |
| Most days you can’t walk through San Francisco’s historic Chinatown without bumping into a tourist’s extended arm, readying for a camera-phone photo. | |
| Lunchtime in particular is usually a bustling affair. But on a recent weekday at the height of the coronavirus pandemic that has dominated Asian countries across the Pacific Ocean, there was a noticeable absence of foot traffic. | |
| At the Dragon Gate on Grant Avenue, the entrance to Chinatown that is usually frequented for selfies, no one posed and no one snapped. The picturesque and Instagram-worthy red lanterns that hung between buildings went unphotographed, as did the bright mural of Bruce Lee and the ornate architecture. The erhu that an elderly gentleman played for no one outside Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral practically echoed down the street. | |
| Read more here: | |
| England only has 15 available beds for adults to treat the most severe respiratory failure and will struggle to cope if there are more than 28 patients who need them if the number of coronavirus cases rises, according to the government and NHS documents. | |
| Ministers have revealed in parliamentary answers that there are 15 available beds for adult extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment at five centres across England. The government said this could be increased in an emergency. There were 30 such beds in total available during the 2018-19 winter flu season. | |
| But an NHS England document prepared in November 2017 reveals the system will struggle to cope if more than 28 patients need the treatment, describing that situation as black/critical. | |
| Thanks to everyone who has been emailing and messaging me. I am now moving into my last hour running the Guardian’s live blog and your insight has been really useful. If you have any news tips, images or updates from your area then please do share them with me. | |
| Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.comTwitter: @sloumarshInstagram: sarah_marsh_journalist | |
| The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: | |
| US officials are ramping up efforts to guard Americans against a local spread of the new coronavirus, dispatching test kits nationwide, and promising funding legislation within the next two weeks.At least 40 public health labs should now be able to test specimens for coronavirus and that could more than double by Friday, health and human services secretary Alex Azar told a House of Representatives committee.He said a newly manufactured test from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can be sent to 93 public health labs as soon as Monday, and a privately manufactured test based on the new CDC test could be sent to those same labs as early as Friday. | |
| Three more people have died in Italy from coronavirus, bringing the death toll from the worst outbreak of the illness in Europe to 17, the Civil Protection Agency said.The number of confirmed cases has risen to 650, officials said, from 528 announced at a news conference some seven hours earlier. The vast majority are in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto. | Three more people have died in Italy from coronavirus, bringing the death toll from the worst outbreak of the illness in Europe to 17, the Civil Protection Agency said.The number of confirmed cases has risen to 650, officials said, from 528 announced at a news conference some seven hours earlier. The vast majority are in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto. |
| The virus is beginning to have an effect on sporting events and organisations. Italian football authorities have insisted matches be played behind closed doors this weekend and the Ireland Italy clash in the Six Nations rugby has been postponed. | The virus is beginning to have an effect on sporting events and organisations. Italian football authorities have insisted matches be played behind closed doors this weekend and the Ireland Italy clash in the Six Nations rugby has been postponed. |
| Bigger concerns, however, lie over the fate of this summer’s prestige tournaments, particularly the men’s European Football Championship in June and the Tokyo Olympics the month after. | Bigger concerns, however, lie over the fate of this summer’s prestige tournaments, particularly the men’s European Football Championship in June and the Tokyo Olympics the month after. |
| The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday declared “business as usual” in their plans. However Christopher Dye, an epidemiologist at Oxford University who worked with the IOC during the Zika virus outbreak before the 2016 Rio Games, said that governing bodies will currently be contemplating their response to all possible scenarios, and who would be responsible should things go wrong. | |
| “What the Japanese authorities and IOC are saying is that they fully intend to go ahead and that would be the right judgment at this stage”, Dye told the Guardian. “The end of July is a long way away. We are not even two months into the [outbreak] and a lot of things have already happened. We have seen it spread across China and decline almost everywhere in China and in some parts at a dramatic rate. | “What the Japanese authorities and IOC are saying is that they fully intend to go ahead and that would be the right judgment at this stage”, Dye told the Guardian. “The end of July is a long way away. We are not even two months into the [outbreak] and a lot of things have already happened. We have seen it spread across China and decline almost everywhere in China and in some parts at a dramatic rate. |
| “Nobody knows what is going to happen by the summer but the sensible thing is to consider different scenarios. What the organisers will be asking is: what are the risks, the costs, the benefits and who will be responsible if something horrible happened?” | “Nobody knows what is going to happen by the summer but the sensible thing is to consider different scenarios. What the organisers will be asking is: what are the risks, the costs, the benefits and who will be responsible if something horrible happened?” |
| The European Championships are set to be held in 12 cities across the continent, which poses a different risk for the spread of the disease and, according to Dye. “The idea of controlling spread close to venues would essentially be an impossibility. | The European Championships are set to be held in 12 cities across the continent, which poses a different risk for the spread of the disease and, according to Dye. “The idea of controlling spread close to venues would essentially be an impossibility. |
| “The issue of responsibility will be very important as well. What’s happening in Italy at the moment will be one factor that will be taken into account. But Italy in February when it comes to April and May will look like relatively distant past.” | “The issue of responsibility will be very important as well. What’s happening in Italy at the moment will be one factor that will be taken into account. But Italy in February when it comes to April and May will look like relatively distant past.” |
| Day said he thought the likelihood of the coronavirus mutating into a stronger strain was unlikely this year but that the occurrence of victims testing positive after having apparently already recovered from the virus was concerning. “We don’t know why this has happened. It could be that the testing was not rigorous enough”, he said. “But if it is the case that immunity is not long lasting then developing a vaccine for coronavirus will be more difficult”. | |
| The director of the Wellcome Trust has called for the world bank to spend $10bn on the crisis. | The director of the Wellcome Trust has called for the world bank to spend $10bn on the crisis. |
| Jeremy Farrar said an urgent commitment of $10bn (£7.7bn), “with more to follow as needed,” was “essential” from the World Bank to “underpin the public health measures in low- and middle-income countries, coordinated by the WHO alongside critical investment in diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.” | |
| He said: “Anything less leaves us at risk of much greater costs later and long-term catastrophe. The sums are considerable. The decision to release funds should not be taken lightly, but the stakes could not be higher.” | He said: “Anything less leaves us at risk of much greater costs later and long-term catastrophe. The sums are considerable. The decision to release funds should not be taken lightly, but the stakes could not be higher.” |
| Farrar said what was missing in the global response was tangible, high-level funding and support from global financial institutions including the World Bank, Regional Development Banks and the International Monetary Fund. | Farrar said what was missing in the global response was tangible, high-level funding and support from global financial institutions including the World Bank, Regional Development Banks and the International Monetary Fund. |
| “The possible impact of this coronavirus is far beyond a health emergency – it’s a global crisis with potential to reach the scale of the global financial crisis of 2008,” he said. | “The possible impact of this coronavirus is far beyond a health emergency – it’s a global crisis with potential to reach the scale of the global financial crisis of 2008,” he said. |