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Coronavirus live updates: fifth death confirmed in UK, as head of New York's airports tests positive | |
(32 minutes later) | |
With cases spiking sharply across Europe and emergency measures in place from California to Saudi Arabia, investors have sent shares tumbling | With cases spiking sharply across Europe and emergency measures in place from California to Saudi Arabia, investors have sent shares tumbling |
Israel will force anyone arriving in the country, from any part of the world, to self-isolate for at least 14 days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced. The government has already imposed some of the most stringent rules globally to block the spread of the virus.The move has also been interpreted domestically as a measure to avoid irking the country’s close ally and benefactor in Washington, Donald Trump. Israel already requires travellers arriving from more than a dozen countries to spend two weeks in home isolation, effectively killing off incoming tourism.Following outbreaks in the US, pressure had been building to add the country to the list. But rather than extending the rules specifically on US travellers, and risk an angry backlash from the White House, Israel broadened its policy out to the entire planet.Netanyahu spoke with US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday, after Israeli media reported the country was considering barring visitors from parts of the US, such as New York and California.Health authorities have said that the number of coronavirus cases in Israel jumped from 25 to 39 over the weekend. Around 80,000 Israelis are already in self-isolation. | |
Here are the main points from the press conference held by Boris Johnson. He was joined by Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser. | |
Ministers will within a fortnight advise anyone with a fever or a mild respiratory tract infection to stay at home for seven days, Whitty revealed. He said that the government was not giving out this advice now, because the chances of someone with a fever now having coronavirus are very low, he said. But he said that would change very quickly. Soon the number of infections would rise “really quite fast”, he said. He went on: | |
This advice is likely to have huge repercussions for workplaces across the country. | |
Johnson stressed that it was important for the government not to implement its delay and mitigating measures too early. He said: | |
He sounded more defensive on this point than he was when he held a press conference last week, reflecting the fact that the government is starting to face criticism for allegedly being too complacent. | |
Johnson said that he was no longer shaking hands. Last week he was still shaking hands, but he said at today’s Commonwealth Day service he was advised against this. He explained: | |
Whitty refused to comment on suggestions that 2m people might be hospitalised. He said figures like this were “largely speculative”. | |
Whitty said that from tomorrow the government would start screening everyone arriving at hospital with a respiratory illness for coronavirus. Until now people have only been screened if they are in intensive care and have coronavirus-type symptoms, he said. | |
Vallance said the aim of the measures to be introduced by the government would be to lower the mortality rate of those in the at-risk group by 20 to 30%. But he said it would be wrong to try to “suppress” the disease completely because it could result in a winter outbreak at a time of maximum pressure for the NHS. He said: | |
A fifth patient in the UK has died after testing positive for coronavirus, NHS England has confirmed. | |
In a statement on behalf of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, chief executive Daniel Elkeles said: | |
In the last 24 hours the number of deaths from coronavirus in Italy has risen from 366 to 463, officials have said on Monday. | |
Some 7,985 people are now infected – 1,598 more than Sunday. The total number of cases stands at 9,172. Some 724 have recovered from the illness. | |
Italy is considering to extend closure of schools in the country until 3 April. | |
The UK government has announced it will work with local authorities to extend the hours that deliveries can be made to supermarkets and other food retailers to help the industry respond to the coronavirus. | |
The new measures would mean food retailers can increase the frequency of deliveries to their stores and move stocks more quickly from warehouses across the country to replenish their shelves. | |
The announcement follows last week’s call between the British environment secretary, George Eustice, and leading supermarkets, during which the industry said a relaxation of curfews would help retailers respond to the increased consumer demand for some products, namely hygiene products and a limited number of long life items. | |
Current rules mean that deliveries are prohibited overnight so that vehicles don’t disturb residents. The government will temporarily relax the enforcement of restrictions to give greater flexibility. | |
Drive-through coronavirus testing is underway in a hospital garage lot in Seattle, NPR reports. | |
Employees at the University of Washington’s UW Medicine System can get tested without leaving their cars at the drive-through clinic if they have symptoms. | |
The virus has already claimed 17 lives in the Seattle area and infected at least 83 people. | |
In a briefing this afternoon, Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, gave the latest US coronavirus figures: | |
On the issue of testing, which has been held back by a production flaw in the initial version of the publicly issued kits, Messonnier said: “State and local public health labs across 50 states now have the capacity to test up to 75,000 people for Covid-19.” | |
Messonnier also gave this advice for caring for the elderly and vulnerable: | |
Residents recount to the Guardian’s Jon Henley and Lorenzo Tondo what it feels like to be in Milan, Italy’s financial and economic capital, during lockdown: | |
Erika, 30: | Erika, 30: |
Natalie, a French woman who has lived in Milan for 30 years: | Natalie, a French woman who has lived in Milan for 30 years: |
Ryanair has announced it will suspend all domestic flights to red zones in Italy – from and to the airports of Bergamo, Milano Malpensa, Parma e Treviso. The suspension will start from midnight until 8 April. | |
Pregnant women do not appear to be more susceptible to the consequences of coronavirus than the general population, and there is no evidence the virus can pass to a foetus during pregnancy, according to national guidance published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. | |
The guidance says that, as a precautionary approach, pregnant women with suspected or confirmed coronavirus when they go into labour are being advised to attend an obstetric unit but their birth plan should be followed as closely as possible. | |
There is no evidence the virus can be carried in breast milk, so it is felt the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh any potential risks of transmission of coronavirus. | |
The full guidance on Covid-19 infection and pregnancy can be found here. | The full guidance on Covid-19 infection and pregnancy can be found here. |
At the press conference Boris Johnson says he is no longer shaking hands. At his press conference last week, he said he was still shaking hands with people. | At the press conference Boris Johnson says he is no longer shaking hands. At his press conference last week, he said he was still shaking hands with people. |
When asked during his press conference about panic buying, Boris Johnson urges anyone thinking of stockpiling to “behave responsibly” and think of others. | |
Back in Geneva, Dr Michael Ryan, the executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, says the real tragedy and moral dilemma that healthcare workers will face in coming days if they do not have personal protective equipment is whether to treat a Covid-19 patient in front of them. | |
He says: | He says: |
But he says China and South Korea have shown “an element of controllability”, which gives him hope. | |
His colleague Dr Maria Van Kerkhove says: | His colleague Dr Maria Van Kerkhove says: |
But she says there is an opportunity in countries which have had very few or no cases. She cites the example of Wuhan, the Chinese province at the centre of the current outbreak, and the “drastic action” in Singapore that has reduced transmission. | |
She adds: | |
At the press conference in Downing Street, Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, has been speaking. | |
He says soon coronavirus will spread “really quite fast”. | |
Within about 10 to 14 days the government will advise people with even minor respiratory tract infections or a fever to self-isolate, he says. But that is because by that point the chances of their having coronavirus will be much higher than they are now. | |