Fourth UK coronavirus case confirmed as evacuation plane lands in UK

Another patient has tested positive for coronavirus in England, bringing the total number of UK cases to four, the chief medical officer has said.

The individual had also been to the French Alps where another five Britons contracted the virus from a British man who caught the illness in Singapore.

Professor Chris Whitty said the new case is a known contact of a previously confirmed UK case and the virus was passed on in France.

He said: “Experts at Public Health England continue to work hard tracing patient contacts from the UK cases. They successfully identified this individual and ensured the appropriate support was provided.

“The patient has been transferred to a specialist NHS centre at The Royal Free Hospital, and we are now using robust infection control measures to prevent any possible further spread of the virus.”

Mr Whitty added that the NHS is “extremely well prepared” to manage the virus cases and treat them.

It also emerged on Sunday that a British man tested positive for coronavirus in Majorca, according to Spain’s National Centre for Microbiology.

French senior health official Jerome Salomon confirmed the origin of the outbreak in a televised statement.

“We learned that there were two other cases linked to this cluster, two adults – one who was diagnosed in the United Kingdom and the other who was diagnosed in Mallorca.”

Both, he said, were “linked to a stay in the apartment in Les Contamines-Montjoie”.

The latest key points on UK coronavirus cases:

• Fourth person in England tests positive for coronavirus
• British man tests positive for coronavirus in Majorca – becoming second confirmed case in Spain
• Five British nationals diagnosed with coronavirus after staying at French ski resort
• New UK cases linked to British man who contracted virus in Singapore
• Second evacuation plane lands in UK from Wuhan, China, carrying 200 passengers
• British ambassador admits mistakes in evacuation of Britons from Wuhan

This patient was also at the Les Contamines-Montjoie resort where five people were diagnosed with the virus.

He and three family members were taken into observation in Majorca on Friday. His wife and daughters tested negative for the illness.

It is the second case of the fast-spreading new virus to be confirmed in Spain and the first on the island of Majorca.

News of the latest case involving a Briton emerged after an evacuation flight out of the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, landed in the UK on Sunday morning.

The death toll in China from the coronavirus has risen to 910, surpassing SARS fatalities in the 2002-2003 outbreak.

The plane had more than 200 people on board, including non British nationals, the British government said.

The passengers also included British government staff and military medics and arrived at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Sunday morning.

Two British nationals were not allowed to board the flight after they initially failed a temperature checks, although later checks were normal.

One of them, Josh Skarratts, told Sky News: “Now we are stranded in Wuhan having missed the last plane out of Wuhan and our last means of evacuation.”

South Central Ambulance Service said Kents Hill Park – a conference centre and hotel – is being used to house the returnees and they will be quarantined for two weeks.

Eight coaches took the evacuees to the site, where they were met by NHS staff in blue scrubs, gloves and masks as they arrived at around 10.30 GMT.

The ambulance service said the presence of the group in Milton Keynes would not be a risk to local people.

The passengers will be assessed and continually monitored after landing in the UK.

Anyone displaying symptoms would not have been permitted to board the plane.

Officials said that anyone developing symptoms on the flight would have been taken to a separate cabin on the plane.

And any passenger displaying symptoms on landing would be transferred to an NHS hospital.

Meanwhile, the British ambassador to China has admitted mistakes in the evacuation of Britons from Wuhan.

Dame Barbara Woodward told Sky News’ Tom Cheshire that people “got the wrong information” in the initial evacuation flight last week but that the Foreign Office had “learnt the lessons from that”.

She said that the UK had been giving aid to China, including medical supplies, but the offer of experts had not been accepted by Chinese authorities.

“So far the Chinese haven’t taken that up,” she said. “But the offer is absolutely on the table.”

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The first group of Britons who returned on a flight last month are currently quarantined at Arrow Park in Merseyside.

Outside China, there are 288 cases of the virus in 24 countries, with one death, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The French health minister said on Saturday that five Britons, including a nine-year-old child, had been tested positive for coronavirus in France after staying in a chalet in the Alps.

The infected Britons are not in a serious condition and were taken to hospitals in Lyon, Saint-Etienne and Grenoble along with six other British nationals who came into contact with the carrier.

It also emerged on Saturday that the carrier came into contact with a student at Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) in Brighton, who was later told to self-isolate for 14 days following advice from Public Health England.

Elsewhere, British honeymooner Alan Steele, who was transferred from the cruise liner Diamond Princess to hospital in Japan with the virus was said to be feeling well and in good spirits.

The liner had been isolated in the port of Yokohama before going back out to sea, with 61 people taken to hospital after testing positive for the virus.

As of 2pm on Sunday, the Department of Health said 795 people had been tested for the virus in the UK, with four cases confirmed.

The two Britons first diagnosed with the virus had recently travelled from China and are still being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases centre in Newcastle.

One is a student at the University of York, while the other is a family member.

There have been more than 37,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in China, according to official data, while the virus has spread to at least 27 other countries and regions, infecting more than 330 people.

(c) Sky News 2020: Fourth UK coronavirus case confirmed as evacuation plane lands in UK