Two British prisoners including ‘drug dealer’ sent home from Thailand do NOT have coronavirus, tests confirm
- Mark Rumble, 31, was extradited back to the UK from Thailand on January 27
- He reportedly collapsed in his cell at HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester on Monday
- Rumble was reportedly sent back to the UK to face class A drug supply charges
- He and another prison inmate have now been shown not to have the virus
Two British prisoners including a ‘drug dealer’ who were sent home from Thailand do not have coronavirus, tests have confirmed.
It comes after Thailand’s health ministry insisted the alleged dealer who collapsed in prison with suspected coronavirus was fit to travel before he was extradited to the UK.
Mark Rumble, 31, from Oxfordshire, was sent to HMP Bullingdon, close to Bicester, on January 27 and faces a series of charges of conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs. He is due in court later this month and is expected to deny the charges.
Thailand’s ministry claimed Mr Rumble had no symptoms of the never-before-seen virus when he was tested before flying back to the UK.
And it said he passed all of the standard health checks prisoners go through before they are extradited, claiming he wouldn’t have been allowed to travel had he failed.
Officials in Thailand, the first country outside of China to record a case on January 13, claim there have been no cases among the 300,000 prisoners in the country.
And they told Sky News he has been in the UK for at least 16 days, meaning he had passed the accepted 14-day incubation period if he caught it in Thailand.
Mr Rumble reportedly collapsed in his cell at HMP Bullingdon on Monday. A second inmate developed flu-like symptoms and a third is also being tested for the virus.
Meanwhile, a prison nurse who first checked on Mr Rumble has put herself into ‘self-isolation’ at home, a source told MailOnline.
A total of 33 cases of the coronavirus, now named COVID-19, have been diagnosed in Thailand. In total, more than 1,100 people have died from the illness.
In other developments to the coronavirus crisis today:
- Steve Walsh, the ‘super-spreader’ patient in Brighton, has today been released from St Thomas’ Hospital in London and the NHS said he is no longer contagious
- A doctor working in a busy A&E department is one of the eight Britons who has tested positive for coronavirus
- Nine schools in the Brighton area are on lockdown after staff and pupils went into quarantine at home
- The killer coronavirus is the ‘worst enemy you can ever imagine’ and more of a threat to humanity than terrorism, the World Health Organisation warned
- Another 39 people have tested positive for the coronavirus on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, bringing the total infected toll to 175
Mark Rumble (right), 31, from Oxfordshire, is pictured with boxing legend Ricky Hatton in Thailand
Results from Rumble and another inmate at HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire have come back clear
Mr Rumble is pictured in Thailand, where he was arrested on a drug dealing charge
British alleged drug dealer Mark John Rumble (left) being arrested by Thai police officers at a house in Pattaya
A doctor working in a busy A&E department is one of the eight Britons who has tested positive for coronavirus, it was revealed today.
The medic treated a ‘small number’ of patients at Worthing Hospital in West Sussex on February 4 and 5 before they became unwell and ‘self-isolated’.
Patients and staff are being contacted and told what symptoms to look for and the precautions they should take – but the hospital continues to operate as normal today.
NHS staff are at the centre of the coronavirus crisis after two GPs became infected after a ski trip with Britain’s super-spreader Steve Walsh in France at the end of January.
The Worthing A&E doctor is the second confirmed medic to test positive for the virus – after Brighton GP Catriona Greenwood, also known by her married name Saynor, fell ill last week.
Two health centres in Brighton have been shut down this week and a care home visited by Dr Greenwood has also been sealed off to prevent any spread of the virus, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives worldwide and infected 40,000.
Hundreds of inmates were confined to their cells yesterday, with the prison gripped by panic.
Results from Mr Rumble and the other potentially infected inmates are expected later today.
A source last night told MailOnline: ‘The entire wing is currently in lockdown and will be for the next 72 hours or so.
‘That means that prisoners will remain in their cells for the duration and will be fed food on plates pushed through their door hatches.’
Another source added: ‘The jail’s been in panic mode since the first person collapsed.
‘Several hundred prisoners on C-wing are in lockdown and unable to leave their cells. A prison is just about the worst place for any outbreak because everyone is in such close quarters.’
Mr Rumble was rushed to hospital and is currently understood to be being treated at a ‘specialist hospital’ outside of the prison walls.
The prison source told MailOnline: ‘One prisoner was found collapsed in his cell last night. He is understood to have recently arrived at Bullingdon from a jail in Thailand under a transferral scheme.
‘He is being treated at a specialist hospital outside the prison. The two other prisoners were displaying flu-like symptoms and are in Bullingdon’s hospital wing.
‘All three prisoners were in single cells. A nurse who was in close proximity and contact with the collapsed prisoner has self-isolated as a precaution.’
Mr Rumble was extradited from Thailand last month to stand trial in England after being arrested on a drug dealing charge
Three men have reportedly become ill in HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire, after one of them was transferred to the jail from Thailand last month
The epidemic has struck down over 43,000 people since the first cases were reported in late January – 99 per cent of infections are in China
So far the coronavirus epidemic sweeping the world has killed more than 1,000, all but two of whom were in China
Officials from Public Health England were spotted at the prison and medics in hazmat suits entered the locked down wing.
The jail holds more than 1,000 inmates – including sex offenders and prisoners on remand. It featured in a four-part ITV documentary on life behinds bars.
Mr Rumble was arrested in Pattaya, Thailand, last November on suspicion of drugs offences.
HOW THE CORONAVIRUS HAS SPREAD OVER TIME
The vast majority of coronavirus cases have been in mainland China, but more than 25 other countries and territories have declared infections:
- Belgium: 1 case, first case February 4
- Spain: 2 case, first case January 31
- Sweden: 1 case, first case January 31
- Russia: 2 cases, first case January 31
- UK: 8 cases, first case January 31
- India: 3 cases, first case January 30
- Philippines: 3 cases, first case January 30
- Italy: 3 cases, first case January 30
- Finland: 1 case, first case January 29
- United Arab Emirates: 8 cases, first case January 29
- Germany: 16 cases, first case Jan 27
- Sri Lanka: 1 case, first case Jan 27
- Cambodia: 1 case, first case Jan 27
- Canada: 7 cases, first case Jan 25
- Australia: 15 cases, first case Jan 25
- Malaysia: 18 cases, first case Jan 25
- France: 11 cases, first case January 24
- Nepal: 1 case, first case January 24
- Vietnam: 15 cases, first case Jan 24
- Singapore: 47 cases, first case January 23
- Macau: 10 cases, first case Jan 22
- Hong Kong: 49 cases, first case January 22
- Taiwan: 18 cases, first case Jan 21
- USA: 13 cases, first case January 20
- South Korea: 28 cases, first case January 20
- Japan: 203 cases, first case January 16
- Thailand: 33 cases, first case Jan 13
He is due to appear at Oxford Crown Court on February 20, where he is expected to plead not guilty. He is currently in custody on remand.
During his time in Thailand, he posted photos of himself dressed in designer clothing and posing with boxing legend Ricky Hatton.
The British Foreign Office has not changed its travel advice for Thailand as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, but warns travellers about the virus.
People returning from the country should be considered possible coronavirus patients if they develop flu-like symptoms within two weeks of returning, the government said last week.
It was listed as one of nine areas considered to be at risk, along with China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.
The health minister in Thailand, Anutin Charnvirakul, last week complained that Westerners were refusing to wear face masks.
‘These kinds of people, we should kick them out of Thailand,’ Mr Charnvirakul told reporters at a press conference last week while waving a handful of masks in the air.
The prison scare comes as seven schools in Brighton are on lockdown after staff and pupils went into quarantine at home – including one across the street from the County Oak Medical Centre, which was shut down for a deep clean.
Dr Catriona Greenwood, currently in a London hospital receiving treatment for the killer virus, worked a locum shift at the surgery last week before she was diagnosed.
In some cases children are being allowed to stay home.
One of the largest secondary schools in Brighton yesterday told parents a ‘member of its community’ was in quarantine because of suspected coronavirus contact.
Varndean School, which has around 1,300 pupils, was one of the schools in the city to announce that somebody connected to it had been told to ‘self-isolate’ for 14 days by Public Heath England.
Parents at Cottesmore St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Hove told of their shock after learning two pupils – thought to be Mr Walsh’s children – were in quarantine.
Other schools in Brighton that have seen staff or pupils told to self-isolate include Carden Primary School, Hangleton Primary School, Balfour Primary School, Portslade Academy and Bevendean Primary.
Steve Walsh, a businessman from Brighton, has unknowingly passed on the coronavirus to at least 11 other people after catching it in Singapore but not becoming ill himself. He is in hospital in London
Stephen Walsh, 53, inadvertently brought coronavirus to the UK having attended a conference in Singapore. Health officials told people he had been in contact with to ‘self-isolate’
MailOnline has found at least ten sites in Brighton linked to the city’s super spreader or his infected doctor friend including two schools, two health centres and a care home as the area’s residents accused public health chiefs of starving them of information
RISK OF THE ‘SILENT CARRIER’ PATIENTS
Three patients have tested positive for coronavirus after initially being given the all-clear – raising the prospect of ‘silent carriers’.
The cases – reported yesterday in the US and Japan – raise the prospect that people can be infected with the disease while believing they are healthy.
It also calls into question the accuracy of the test, which since the start of the outbreak has returned negative results for 1,350 patients in the UK.
However, scientists claim such occurrences are ‘common’ when patients have not yet entered the ‘diagnostic window’ – when infections are large enough to be detected.
Professor Richard Tedder, an expert in viruses from Imperial College London, explained that if individuals were tested very soon after they have become infected, there may not be enough of the virus in the body to show up on the analysis.
He stressed that ‘on the balance of probability’ these patients were unlikely to be infectious at that time.
One case involved a Japanese man in his 50s who had fled the Chinese city of Wuhan on an evacuation flight on January 29.
He was tested twice and both came back negative, but a third test on Monday – 12 days later – was positive. He has been isolated in his hotel room since his return from China.
The second man, who is in his 40s, returned from Wuhan on January 30 and initially tested negative but was diagnosed with the virus on Monday. He is also understood to have been in isolation.
Professor Tedder, a visiting professor in medical virology, said: ‘This is inevitable when you are sampling people shortly after they have become infected. This is common to all infections – a so-called diagnostic window.
‘I don’t think we should be unduly worried by these cases.’
Two schools in Eastbourne, 21 miles east of Brighton, are in the same position after a teacher went into self isolation – these are the Ratton School and Ocklynge School.
It comes after Stephen Walsh, 53, yesterday broke his silence after discovering he was the ‘super-spreader’ and the source of an extraordinary web of cases stretching across the UK and Europe.
Speaking from an NHS isolation room, the sales executive yesterday revealed he had ‘fully recovered’ and insisted he acted as quickly as possible once he realised the threat he posed.
Mr Walsh, a cub scout leader and father-of-two from Hove whom children refer to as ‘Shere Khan’ after the tiger from The Jungle Book, contracted the virus after travelling to a business conference in Singapore in mid-January.
But after almost two weeks of carrying the virus, authorities discovered he was linked to at least 11 cases in the UK, France and Spain.
Yesterday, authorities were still tracking the contacts of Mr Walsh and his five associates – including two GPs – who have also tested positive in the Brighton area over the last few days.
One of the two infected GPs is also thought to have worked at the A&E unit at Worthing Hospital in West Sussex, which was last night contacting patients and staff to tell them what precautions they should take.
The doctor, who has not been identified, treated a ‘small number’ of patients at the hospital on February 4 and 5 before they became unwell and ‘self-isolated’.
During Mr Walsh’s 6,736-mile journey home from Singapore, he stopped in the French Alps for a four-day ski holiday.
Several of his associates on the trip have since tested positive.
He contacted his GP, the NHS’s 111 helpline and Public Health England as soon as he realised he may have encountered the virus at the conference.
‘I was advised to attend an isolated room at hospital, despite showing no symptoms, and subsequently self-isolated at home as instructed,’ he said.
British cruise ship passenger Alan Steele, pictured with his wife Wendy Marshall Steele, has tested negative for coronavirus after several days in a Japanese hospital
David and Sally Abel told Sky News that life on board the quarantined Diamond Princess – which has almost 4,000 passengers and crew – is getting harder
A doctor who spent two days working at Worthing Hospital’s A&E department has tested positive for coronavirus
COVID-19 IS THE ‘WORST ENEMY YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE’
The deadly coronavirus outbreak is the ‘worst enemy you can ever imagine’ and more of a threat to humanity than terrorism, the World Health Organisation has warned.
China hopes the killer virus, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives and struck down over 44,500 people, will be curbed by April.
But WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said it could rumble on for more than a year and warned a vaccine could take at least 18 months to develop.
He added: ‘To be honest, a virus is more powerful in creating political, social and economic upheaval than any terrorist attack. It’s the worst enemy you can imagine.’
The WHO has long believed that a new disease pandemic could race around the world, wipe out millions of people and destabilise society, due to modern air travel.
‘When the diagnosis was confirmed I was sent to an isolation unit in hospital, where I remain, and, as a precaution, my family was also asked to isolate themselves.’
The businessman has been treated at St Thomas’ Hospital in London since his case was confirmed last Thursday. He claims to have recovered.
He is an employee of Servomex, a British gas analytics firm that organised the conference in the Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore.
After returning home to the UK on January 28, Mr Walsh was told to work from home by his company over then-unfounded concerns about the virus’s circulation at the conference.
But he is understood to have gone about his everyday life as normal until February 3 when the company found out that one of the conference’s 94 attendees had contracted the virus.
The cases related to Mr Walsh have prompted authorities to hunt for all those who may have come into contact with him and the other carriers.
Boris Johnson last night said the UK should be ‘confident and calm’ over the threat of coronavirus.
Speaking in Birmingham, the Prime Minister praised the response of the NHS and said anyone concerned should ‘simply follow their advice’.
Lab technicians are pictured in Shenyang, China, handling test samples from people suspected of having the coronavirus
A medical worker wrapped in protective clothing examines scans of a woman’s lungs in a fever clinic in Yinan County, Shandong, China
Medical workers in Yinan County handle test samples from people suspected of having the coronavirus
A train passenger is pictured wearing extensive plastic protection on their head on a subway in Shanghai
QUARANTINED BRIT ON JAPANESE CRUISE SHIP TESTS NEGATIVE FOR THE VIRUS
A British coronavirus patient who was hauled off a cruise ship in Japan has tested negative for the virus and could leave hospital.
Alan Steele was one of 175 people confirmed to have the virus after the Diamond Princess was quarantined off the coast of Japan.
Mr Steele, who was travelling on his honeymoon with his wife Wendy, was taken to a hospital on the mainland but said today he was on the brink of being clear of the virus.
‘Just received great news. My test showed negative to virus and have now been swabbed for second test, if that comes back negative I get released,’ he said.
Japanese authorities today confirmed another 39 cases on the ship, bringing the total to 175 with thousands of passengers facing another week in quarantine in Yokohama.
In other developments today, a British coronavirus patient who was hauled off a cruise ship in Japan has tested negative for the virus and could leave hospital.
Alan Steele was one of 175 people confirmed to have the virus after the Diamond Princess was quarantined off the coast of Japan.
Mr Steele, who was travelling on his honeymoon with his wife Wendy, was taken to a hospital on the mainland but said today he was on the brink of being clear of the virus.
‘Just received great news. My test showed negative to virus and have now been swabbed for second test, if that comes back negative I get released,’ he said.
Japanese authorities today confirmed another 39 cases on the ship, bringing the total to 175 with thousands of passengers facing another week in quarantine in Yokohama.
Conditions on the quarantined cruise ship are becoming more challenging, a British couple have said.
David and Sally Abel told Sky News that life on board the Diamond Princess – which has almost 4,000 passengers and crew – is getting harder.
The couple, who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, said passengers had been kept awake one night due to a woman crying in her cabin.
Mrs Abel added: ‘They are looking after us very well but obviously we are confined to our cabin and it’s getting harder. We are now into the second week, it seems an eternity to go.’
Mr Abel said: ‘It is more challenging, as each day progresses we are having additional people testing positive.’
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE DEADLY CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA?
Someone who is infected with the coronavirus can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze, scientists say.
At least 1,116 people with the virus are now confirmed to have died and more than 45,200 have been infected in at least 28 countries and regions. But experts predict the true number of people with the disease could be 100,000, or even as high as 350,000 in Wuhan alone, as they warn it may kill as many as two in 100 cases. Here’s what we know so far:
What is the coronavirus?
A coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. Viruses break into cells inside their host and use them to reproduce itself and disrupt the body’s normal functions. Coronaviruses are named after the Latin word ‘corona’, which means crown, because they are encased by a spiked shell which resembles a royal crown.
The coronavirus from Wuhan is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. It has been named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The name stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2.
Experts say the bug, which has killed around one in 50 patients since the outbreak began in December, is a ‘sister’ of the SARS illness which hit China in 2002, so has been named after it.
The disease that the virus causes has been named COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019.
Dr Helena Maier, from the Pirbright Institute, said: ‘Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that infect a wide range of different species including humans, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and wild animals.
‘Until this new coronavirus was identified, there were only six different coronaviruses known to infect humans. Four of these cause a mild common cold-type illness, but since 2002 there has been the emergence of two new coronaviruses that can infect humans and result in more severe disease (Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses).
‘Coronaviruses are known to be able to occasionally jump from one species to another and that is what happened in the case of SARS, MERS and the new coronavirus. The animal origin of the new coronavirus is not yet known.’
The first human cases were publicly reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where approximately 11million people live, after medics first started publicly reporting infections on December 31.
By January 8, 59 suspected cases had been reported and seven people were in critical condition. Tests were developed for the new virus and recorded cases started to surge.
The first person died that week and, by January 16, two were dead and 41 cases were confirmed. The next day, scientists predicted that 1,700 people had become infected, possibly up to 7,000.
Just a week after that, there had been more than 800 confirmed cases and those same scientists estimated that some 4,000 – possibly 9,700 – were infected in Wuhan alone. By that point, 26 people had died.
By January 27, more than 2,800 people were confirmed to have been infected, 81 had died, and estimates of the total number of cases ranged from 100,000 to 350,000 in Wuhan alone.
By January 29, the number of deaths had risen to 132 and cases were in excess of 6,000.
By February 5, there were more than 24,000 cases and 492 deaths.
By February 11, this had risen to more than 43,000 cases and 1,000 deaths.
Where does the virus come from?
According to scientists, the virus has almost certainly come from bats. Coronaviruses in general tend to originate in animals – the similar SARS and MERS viruses are believed to have originated in civet cats and camels, respectively.
The first cases of COVID-19 came from people visiting or working in a live animal market in the city, which has since been closed down for investigation.
Although the market is officially a seafood market, other dead and living animals were being sold there, including wolf cubs, salamanders, snakes, peacocks, porcupines and camel meat.
A study by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, published in February 2020 in the scientific journal Nature, found that the genetic make-up virus samples found in patients in China is 96 per cent similar to a coronavirus they found in bats.
However, there were not many bats at the market so scientists say it was likely there was an animal which acted as a middle-man, contracting it from a bat before then transmitting it to a human. It has not yet been confirmed what type of animal this was.
Dr Michael Skinner, a virologist at Imperial College London, was not involved with the research but said: ‘The discovery definitely places the origin of nCoV in bats in China.
‘We still do not know whether another species served as an intermediate host to amplify the virus, and possibly even to bring it to the market, nor what species that host might have been.’
So far the fatalities are quite low. Why are health experts so worried about it?
Experts say the international community is concerned about the virus because so little is known about it and it appears to be spreading quickly.
It is similar to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 in an outbreak in Asia in 2003, in that it is a type of coronavirus which infects humans’ lungs.
Another reason for concern is that nobody has any immunity to the virus because they’ve never encountered it before. This means it may be able to cause more damage than viruses we come across often, like the flu or common cold.
Speaking at a briefing in January, Oxford University professor, Dr Peter Horby, said: ‘Novel viruses can spread much faster through the population than viruses which circulate all the time because we have no immunity to them.
‘Most seasonal flu viruses have a case fatality rate of less than one in 1,000 people. Here we’re talking about a virus where we don’t understand fully the severity spectrum but it’s possible the case fatality rate could be as high as two per cent.’
If the death rate is truly two per cent, that means two out of every 100 patients who get it will die.
‘My feeling is it’s lower,’ Dr Horby added. ‘We’re probably missing this iceberg of milder cases. But that’s the current circumstance we’re in.
‘Two per cent case fatality rate is comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 so it is a significant concern globally.’
How does the virus spread?
The illness can spread between people just through coughs and sneezes, making it an extremely contagious infection. And it may also spread even before someone has symptoms.
It is believed to travel in the saliva and even through water in the eyes, therefore close contact, kissing, and sharing cutlery or utensils are all risky.
Originally, people were thought to be catching it from a live animal market in Wuhan city. But cases soon began to emerge in people who had never been there, which forced medics to realise it was spreading from person to person.
There is now evidence that it can spread third hand – to someone from a person who caught it from another person.
What does the virus do to you? What are the symptoms?
Once someone has caught the COVID-19 virus it may take between two and 14 days, or even longer, for them to show any symptoms – but they may still be contagious during this time.
If and when they do become ill, typical signs include a runny nose, a cough, sore throat and a fever (high temperature). The vast majority of patients – at least 97 per cent, based on available data – will recover from these without any issues or medical help.
In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people.
What have genetic tests revealed about the virus?
Scientists in China have recorded the genetic sequences of around 19 strains of the virus and released them to experts working around the world.
This allows others to study them, develop tests and potentially look into treating the illness they cause.
Examinations have revealed the coronavirus did not change much – changing is known as mutating – much during the early stages of its spread.
However, the director-general of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, said the virus was mutating and adapting as it spread through people.
This means efforts to study the virus and to potentially control it may be made extra difficult because the virus might look different every time scientists analyse it.
More study may be able to reveal whether the virus first infected a small number of people then change and spread from them, or whether there were various versions of the virus coming from animals which have developed separately.
How dangerous is the virus?
The virus has so far killed 1,116 people out of a total of at least 45,207 officially confirmed cases – a death rate of around two per cent. This is a similar death rate to the Spanish Flu outbreak which, in 1918, went on to kill around 50million people.
However, experts say the true number of patients is likely considerably higher and therefore the death rate considerably lower. Imperial College London researchers estimate that there were 4,000 (up to 9,700) cases in Wuhan city alone up to January 18 – officially there were only 444 there to that date. If cases are in fact 100 times more common than the official figures, the virus may be far less dangerous than currently believed, but also far more widespread.
Experts say it is likely only the most seriously ill patients are seeking help and are therefore recorded – the vast majority will have only mild, cold-like symptoms. For those whose conditions do become more severe, there is a risk of developing pneumonia which can destroy the lungs and kill you.
Can the virus be cured?
The COVID-19 virus cannot currently be cured and it is proving difficult to contain.
Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so they are out of the question. Antiviral drugs can work, but the process of understanding a virus then developing and producing drugs to treat it would take years and huge amounts of money.
No vaccine exists for the coronavirus yet and it’s not likely one will be developed in time to be of any use in this outbreak, for similar reasons to the above.
The National Institutes of Health in the US, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, say they are working on a vaccine based on what they know about coronaviruses in general, using information from the SARS outbreak. But this may take a year or more to develop, according to Pharmaceutical Technology.
Currently, governments and health authorities are working to contain the virus and to care for patients who are sick and stop them infecting other people.
People who catch the illness are being quarantined in hospitals, where their symptoms can be treated and they will be away from the uninfected public.
And airports around the world are putting in place screening measures such as having doctors on-site, taking people’s temperatures to check for fevers and using thermal screening to spot those who might be ill (infection causes a raised temperature).
However, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so there is only a small likelihood that patients will be spotted up in an airport.
Is this outbreak an epidemic or a pandemic?
The outbreak is an epidemic, which is when a disease takes hold of one community such as a country or region.
Although it has spread to dozens of countries, the outbreak is not yet classed as a pandemic, which is defined by the World Health Organization as the ‘worldwide spread of a new disease’.
The head of WHO’s global infectious hazard preparedness, Dr Sylvie Briand, said: ‘Currently we are not in a pandemic. We are at the phase where it is an epidemic with multiple foci, and we try to extinguish the transmission in each of these foci,’ the Guardian reported.
She said that most cases outside of Hubei had been ‘spillover’ from the epicentre, so the disease wasn’t actually spreading actively around the world.
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