Passengers endured hours of misery at Heathrow Airport this morning when up to eight planes were put on lockdown over coronavirus fears after passengers on board complained of symptoms of the deadly virus.
MailOnline understands a British Airways flight from Kuala Lumpur was held up on the tarmac for two hours when it landed at 6.45am after cabin crew grew concerned a Malaysian family ‘of around eight’ might have the contagious infection, now named SARS-CoV-2.
One passenger on the plane said that health workers in protective gowns and face masks came on board the BA34 flight and set up a screen around the family before evacuating everyone off the plane row by row.
However, airport sources dispute the length of the delay and say only one customer was suspected of having the contagious virus and was tended to on board.
Sources said the disruption has become a daily occurrence at major airports as part of enhanced measures to stop more cases entering the UK.
Separately, travellers on the United Airlines Flight 901 from San Francisco were told by the captain to stay in their seats after landing at 9.04am because there was a suspected coronavirus sufferer on board.
Andy West, from Henley-on-Thames, who was on the United plane, told MailOnline passengers were warned by the pilot that they could be on the tarmac for a while because ‘seven other planes’ also had suspected cases.
He revealed staff on the flight took a passenger to the back of the plane without wearing any protective gear or face masks and waited for health officials in hazmat suits to come. Everyone was eventually allowed to disembark half-an-hour later.
The airport chaos illustrates the increasing disruption the virus is causing for travellers around the world, even where the risk of genuine infections is considerably lower than it is in the Far East.
Public Health England and Heathrow officials have so far refused to release any information about this morning’s incident, which may have affected hundreds of travellers. But United Airlines, a US company, confirmed someone ‘became unwell’ on board on the San Francisco flight.
The UK has been on red alert for more cases after the capital confirmed its first patient on Wednesday and it emerged another patient had been to a transport conference before being diagnosed.
Other developments in the coronavirus outbreak today include:
- More than 64,000 cases have been diagnosed around the world and 1,363 have died
- Two Labour MPs have have gone into ‘self-isolation’ after going to a Westminster bus conference attended by one of the UK’s nine confirmed patients
- A Channel 4 employee has gone into isolation after falling ill when he returned from a trip to China
- China reported another spike in deaths and cases yesterday with 121 succumbing to the virus and 5,090 people catching it
- The family of eight-month-old James Adlam, from Worthing, West Sussex, will find out today if the toddler has coronavirus
- Top scientists have ruled out the coronavirus was engineered, dispelling rumours the virus had escaped from a lab
- Churchgoers were urged to avoid communion wine and shaking hands if they have ‘coughs and sneezes’ in a coronavirus warning
- Amazon and eBay have been accused of cashing in on the coronavirus outbreak with comedy T-shirts making fun of the crisis
- A worker on a North Sea oil platform has been placed in isolation while he is tested for suspected coronavirus. The crew member on the Tern Alpha platform off Shetland had presented with ‘minor symptoms’ after returning from a holiday in Thailand and is being treated by a medic.
Staff in hazmat suits were said to have got on board the British Airways flight from Kuala Lumpur this morning (thought to be pictured) and set up a privacy tent around an unwell family before evacuating everyone off the plane row by row
Andy West, from Henley-on-Thames, was on a different plane from San Francisco when it got put on lockdown (shown) this morning amid coronavirus fears
A passenger who flew with Emirates into Johannesburg, South Africa, said army officials came on board and tested each individual’s temperature
London’s Heathrow and Gatwick are the only two UK airports which still have direct flights from China landing – none are being operated by British airlines
Andy West, from Henley-on-Thames, told MailOnline passengers were warned they could be on the tarmac for a while because ‘seven other planes’ also had suspected cases
Almost 65,000 patients around the world have now caught the virus after China reported 5,000 new cases yesterday
A passenger on the BA34 flight from Kuala Lumpur told MailOnline: ‘A family of around eight took ill at the back of the plane. Health workers in hazmats put up a screen around them and took everyone else off row by row.
‘The other passengers were given health forms as they waited to get off the plane – it was on the tarmac for about two hours. But it’s quite surprising that no one was tested before they got on the flight and when they landed.
‘The pilot told everyone not to panic because they might see air stewards in facemasks and stuff, and that health workers from the airport may also come on board. He [the pilot] outright said it on the tannoy that the passenger was suspected of having coronavirus.’
Mr West, a chief development officer at the PR agency Hotwire, said he knew something was wrong when a fire engine drove to meet the plane on the tarmac and the aircraft was not allowed to park at the terminal.
He said his mind ‘started to race’ and worry set in when he heard the contagious disease could be on board the United Airlines flight from San Francisco. Mr West told MailOnline: ‘We landed at about 9am and the captain came on the tannoy to say there was a suspected coronavirus patient on board.
‘I think the passenger was taken right to the back of the plane, so I didn’t get to see what they looked like. We were told to stay sat until authorities came on board, and he [the captain] said that seven other flights had landed and had a similar situation.
‘I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried, my mind started to race.’ Mr West said staff were not wearing any protective clothing including face masks when they took the sick passenger to the back of the plane.
No official sources have been able to confirm exactly what happened, but United Airlines said there had been an incident on the plane Mr West was flying on.
It said in a statement: ‘Our team at London Heathrow Airport is providing assistance related to United flight 901 (San Francisco-London Heathrow) today, following reports of an individual becoming unwell onboard.
‘The safety of our customers and employees is our highest priority and we continue to work closely with local authorities.’ It is not clear what happened to the passenger who became unwell, nor where they had travelled from.
There have only been 15 cases of the coronavirus in the US, with none in San Francisco but six in California and two in nearby San Jose. The US Government has banned all foreign travellers who have been in China within the past fortnight.
Video courtesy of ITV News Meridian
Labour MP Alex Sobel announced his decisions on Twitter, revealing he has cancelled upcoming engagements as a precaution after going to the QEII Centre on February 6. The party’s MP for Nottingham South, Lilian Greenwood, also announced on Twitter that she had cancelled upcoming engagements in order to self-isolate at home
The virus-carrier was reportedly one of 250 delegates at the UK Bus Summit at the QEII Centre on February 6 (Boris Johnson ‘s Buses Minister, Baroness Vere of Norbiton speaks at the summit)
The conference was held just yards from Parliament and was attended by David Brown, chief executive of bus company Go-Ahead, Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood and Gareth Powell, head of Transport for London’s bus network
Nearly 1,400 patients have been killed by coronavirus since the outbreak began in Wuhan
The summit’s speakers included Baroness Vere, who posed with an all-electric bus outside the QEII Centre, which is around 100 yards from Westminster Underground Station
Everyone was told to fill in a Health England health form which quizzed people about their recent travel history, symptoms and contact details.
They were let off 25 minutes later but the sick person was kept behind and their luggage was separated from the other passengers’, Mr West said.
He added that travellers were told they’d be contacted if they were suspected of having coronavirus, adding: ‘There was no forward looking, no information about what we can expect or if we will hear from someone.
‘So I think no news will be good news because I doubt they’ll contact us if they don’t suspect we have it. But it would be nice to hear we have nothing to worry about.’
Heathrow refused to confirm or deny this morning’s events and said it was one for Public Health England, which has yet to update MailOnline on the situation.
The airport is believed to be running as normal, with all runways open.
This afternoon two MPs have gone into ‘self-isolation’ after going to a Westminster bus conference that was attended by one of the UK’s nine coronavirus patient and 250 other delegates.
Labour MPs Lilian Greenwood and Alex Sobel both announced their decisions on Twitter, revealing they have cancelled upcoming engagements as a precaution.
The Westminster bus conference at the QEII Centre on February 6 was just a stone’s throw from Parliament.
The virus-carrier was one of 250 delegates at the UK Bus Summit, whose star speaker was Boris Johnson’s Buses Minister, Baroness Vere of Norbiton.
MailOnline understands the coronavirus patient who attended the conference was not the most recent case – a Chinese woman who took an Uber to A&E at Lewisham Hospital in south London on Sunday night.
The patient’s presence in central London at a packed conference will spark fears among the hundreds of people there from the transport industry amid growing public anxiety about the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Doctors have warned London’s status as a transport hub could exacerbate the spread of the highly contagious illness which can survive on door knobs and train handrails for hours and spreads via people’s breath.
The summit’s speakers included Baroness Vere, who posed with an all-electric bus outside the QEII Centre, which is around 100 yards from Westminster Underground Station.
Also in attendance were David Brown, chief executive of bus company Go-Ahead, Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood and Gareth Powell, head of Transport for London’s bus network.
All attendees at the UK Bus Summit have been emailed warning them that someone at the summit had the killer disease, according to the Financial Times.
Attached was a letter from Public Health England (PHE) telling anyone who develops flu-like symptoms to self-isolate at home and call the NHS’ 111 helpline.
The email said: ‘While the degree of contact you may have had with the case at the summit is unlikely to have been significant, we are taking a precautionary approach and informing you.’
A Channel 4 employee – not a journalist – has been embroiled in a coronavirus scare after feeling ill when he returned from China. He was today escorted from the offices in Victoria by NHS staff wearing hazmat suits. He is now in self-isolation at home
London’s Chinatown stands eerily deserted as thousands of revellers keep their distance from the tourist spot as coronavirus panic sweeps the UK
The normally-busy restaurants are empty just weeks after Chinese New Year after Britain’s ninth confirmed case of the virus, a woman who travelled from China, became the first in the capital
Doctor’s surgery in Portsmouth closes because of suspected coronavirus case
A doctor’s surgery was tonight closed for deep cleaning after a suspected case of coronavirus was identified.
A patient said they were among several who were all told they had to leave Kingston Crescent Surgery in Portsmouth, Hampshire, at 4.30pm due to an ’emergency’.
It is understood a woman who had recently flown into Gatwick was the cause of the alert and she has now gone to hospital to undergo tests.
A doctor from the GP practice said they were following Public Health England guidance and had transferred patient care elsewhere while cleaning is carried out at the site.
Patients were told they had to leave Kingston Crescent Surgery because of an emergency
Dr Sarah Swindells, from the surgery, said: ‘We have closed with a suspected case of coronavirus; we’re following Public Health England guidance and are in contact with them and NHS England.
‘This is evolving minute by minute for us but at the moment it’s just a suspected case.
‘We have transferred care elsewhere so patients will be taken care of.’
The closure of the surgery in the North End area of the city was announced on the Portsdown Group Practice website.
The statement read: ‘Due to coronavirus our Kingston Crescent Surgery is closed for deep cleaning until further notice.’
Patient care will now be carried out at Cosham Park House until the surgery is deemed suitable for reopening.
Dr Yimmy Chow, consultant in health protection at PHE, said: ‘One of our main priorities has been to identify any people who we think have been in close contact with confirmed cases of coronavirus to provide public health advice, as they may be at slightly increased risk of catching the virus.
‘While the degree of contact conference delegates may have had with the case is unlikely to have been significant, we have taken a precautionary approach and informed them of the situation.
London has been on red alert for more coronavirus cases after the capital’s first confirmed patient took herself to A&E in an Uber on Sunday and walked into a public area of Lewisham Hospital – going against strict advice to stay at home and ring NHS 111.
Two healthcare workers who came into contact with the Chinese woman at the hospital have been told to self-isolate and the taxi driver’s account has been temporarily suspended.
The woman, who contracted coronavirus in China, ‘self-presented’ at Lewisham Hospital before being sent home to await the results of tests.
She was rushed to St Thomas’s on Wednesday after her test results returned positive. She is believed to live with family in London and thought to be in her late 20s or early 30s.
Official advice from PHE states that anyone who suspects they have coronavirus should stay at home, call NHS 111 and await transport to the nearest hospital assessment pod.
The Chinese patient was the first case in London and doctors are worried that the disease’s emergence in the capital will lead to it spreading quickly.
Amid fears of the virus in the capital, people have been avoiding Chinatown in Soho.
The normally-bustling tourist hotspot were eerily deserted last night, with restaurants left empty just weeks after Chinese new Year.
Yesterday morning paramedics in hazmat suits turned up to a flat in Paddington, central London, after a patient reported symptoms.
Video footage shows a man in a black hoodie walking into an ambulance at 9.45am with two staff members in full body gowns.
One of the medics was said to have told bystanders there was ‘a confirmed case in the building’ and asked if people could refrain from taking pictures.
Doctors warned the London Underground could be a hotbed for the virus, which can survive on handrails for hours and spreads via people’s breath.
With streets of the central-London venue usually fit to burst with visitors looking to sample the variety of restaurants or browse the Chinese- run super markets, last night was a stark contrast
Wales market stall-holder Su Chu Lu had been to Taiwan – an island off the coast of China – to visit her family, but when she came back neighbours had turned on her. Pictured: A nearly deserted Chinatown restaurant. There is no suggestion that restaurant staff are infected by the virus
Dr Robin Thompson, an expert in mathematical epidemiology at Oxford University, said: ‘In general, if an initial case is in a densely populated area, then the risk of sustained person-to-person transmission following is higher.
‘This is exacerbated by the fact that London is a transport hub, and the Underground could provide a network to spread the virus quickly.’
Yesterday morning paramedics in hazmat suits turned up to a flat in Paddington, central London, after a patient reported symptoms.
‘Video footage shows a man in a black hoodie walking into an ambulance at 9.45am with two staff members in full body gowns.
One of the medics was said to have told bystanders there was ‘a confirmed case in the building’ and asked if people could refrain from taking pictures.
Elsewhere, two GP surgeries were closed after patients with suspicious symptoms turned up unannounced.
The Ritchie Street Health Centre in Islington, north London, posted a message on its website stating it would be closed until today ‘due to the coronavirus’.
However it has emerged that no patients or staff at the practice have tested positive for the virus – and it remains unclear why management took the decision to shut.
NHS officials say the move may have been precautionary after a patient was tested for the virus after turning up at the practice with symptoms.
Auction site eBay says tops like this (left(=) breach its ‘Disaster and Tragedy Policy’ and removed them. The shirt on the right was on sale on eBay for £15.45 but the auction site has now removed it and others
Amazon has several coronavirus T-shirts still on sale and has refused to withdraw them
The Ferns Medical Practice in Farnham, Surrey, said that it was undertaking a deep clean after a patient had come in after visiting ‘one of the affected coronavirus areas’.
Some 2,512 people in Britain have been tested since last month. Patients with suspected coronavirus have swabs taken of their nose and throat which are sent to one of 12 labs across the UK.
Results usually come back within 48 hours – although they can be turned around in 24 hours – and the NHS can test a maximum of 1,000 patients in a day.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said officials were hoping to delay the spread of the coronavirus in this country until the summer.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Delay is the next stage of what we need to do because if we are going to get an outbreak in the UK – this is an if, not a when – but if we do, putting it back in time into the summer period, away from winter pressures on the NHS, buying us a bit more time to understand the virus better… is a big advantage.’
He added that while it was ‘highly likely’ the UK would see more cases, the disease could be ‘dampened’ as the weather got warmer.
The head of the NHS, Simon Stevens, said that to contain the spread many more patients would need to self-isolate at home if they had suspicious symptoms.
Paramedics in hazmat suits march into a flat in central London hours after the first coronavirus patient was confirmed in the capital
Two medics in full protective gowns, gloves and face masks got out of an ambulance and carried heavy-duty rucksacks into a block of flats in Paddington at 9.45am and brought a man in a black hood out with them
Praising the coronavirus evacuees who left the Wirral yesterday after 14 days of isolation, he said the Arrowe Park Hospital ‘guests’ had ‘set an important example, recognising that over the coming weeks many more of us may need to self-isolate at home for a period to reduce this virus’s spread’.
The developments come as a parents of a baby in Brighton fear he may have the coronavirus after he was treated by one of the infected GPs in the city.
At least two doctors in Brighton are known to have caught the bug while on holiday with ‘super-spreader’ businessman, Steve Walsh, who caught it in Singapore.
The eight-month-old has ‘all the symptoms’ associated with the virus, including a boiling temperature, coughing fits, runny nose and extreme fatigue, according to his mother Stephanie Adlam.
She says her terrified family say they are living ‘in hell’ because James’ four-year-old sister may also have been exposed.
James, who has blood defect haemophilia and a long-term lung condition, is now in isolation at home.
The family were taken to Worthing A&E by paramedics in full hazmat suits on Wednesday for tests. They are anxiously waiting the results which come back today.
The boy’s father said: ‘My little boy has haemophilia and a lung condition, so he’s already poorly.
‘My ex-partner took him in to get checked out last Tuesday. We took him back yesterday morning, and as we arrived home at about 1pm we got a call from Worthing A&E.
‘They said both my son and his mum had been in direct contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus, and told us to stay at home.’
He said both his children have ‘flu-like symptoms, everything associated with the virus’.
Overnight, China reported another sharp rise in the number of people infected with the killer disease.
The National Health Commission said 121 more deaths were recorded yesterday, as well as 5,090 new confirmed cases.
The number of reported cases has been rising more quickly after the hardest-hit province changed its method of counting them.
Medical workers check on the conditions of patients in Jinyintan Hospital, designated for critical COVID-19 patients, in Wuhan on Thursday
There are now almost 64,000 confirmed cases in mainland China, of which 1,380 have died, according to the national body.
Hubei province is now including cases based on a physician’s diagnosis and before they have been confirmed by lab tests.
The acceleration in the number of cases does not necessarily represent a sudden surge in new infections of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Paul Hunter, a professor of health protection at the University of East Anglia, said: ‘I suspect but can’t be certain that the underlying trend is still downwards.
‘It almost certainly does not mean that there has been a resurgence of the epidemic overnight.’
The sharp rises is thought to have been caused by a change in the way doctors in Hubei – the province at the centre of the outbreak – are diagnosing the virus.
Officials decided that people who have virus symptoms, plus a CT scan showing chest infection, are now being counted as confirmed cases.
Cases were previously only being confirmed using specialized testing kits in a laboratory.
But authorities have had to switch to the broader diagnostic tools because they are running out of the kits and hundreds of patients are going untested.
It raises the prospect that deaths and infections could have been much higher if medics were using this method all along. And it could mean that going forward, more cases will be reported every day in the Chinese province.
The official death toll now sits at 1,380 after China reported 121 new patients had been killed by the virus overnight. This sparked confusion as it was reported on Thursday that 1,370 people succumbed to the illness.
Coronavirus has killed six health workers in China and infected more than 1,700 since the outbreak began, Beijing said today.
Shortages of masks and protective gear have sparked a crisis for medical staff as they deal with more than 60,000 cases of the deadly virus.
Zeng Yixin, vice minister of China’s national health commission, said today that 1,102 of the 1,716 infected health workers caught the virus in the city of Wuhan.
Another 400 were infected elsewhere in Hubei province, the region at the centre of the outbreak which is under drastic quarantine measures.
A crane delivers a cabin to University Hospital of North Tees, where it will be used as a coronavirus isolation pod
Blackpool Victoria Hospital has attached a sign to a permanent building, indicating that suspected coronavirus patients should go there
Chinese authorities have scrambled to deploy protective gear to Wuhan’s hospitals where doctors and nurses have been overwhelmed by the outbreak.
Many doctors in Wuhan have had to see patients without proper masks, having to re-use the same equipment when it should be changed regularly.
One doctor at a community clinic in Wuhan said he and at least 16 other colleagues were showing symptoms similar to the virus, including lung infections and coughing.
The risks to medical staff were highlighted last Friday when Li Wenliang, a doctor who had been reprimanded for trying to raise the alarm about the virus, died of the Covid-19 disease.
His death unleashed an outpouring of public anger on Chinese social media, with academics in Wuhan writing an open letter demanding reform and free speech.