All Britons who have been to northern Italy should self-isolate at home if they start to feel ill, the government has advised today amid fears the coronavirus outbreak is turning into a pandemic.
Those who have been to areas locked down by Italian officials, such as towns in the Lombardy and Veneto regions, should quarantine themselves even if they don’t feel ill, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
The updated advice has also told people to stay at home for two weeks if they have returned from Iran or the cities of Daeugu or Cheongdo in South Korea, which have been battered by the deadly infection.
Travellers from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have been told to self-isolate if they have flu-like symptoms, such as a cough or a fever.
The Government’s advice comes as more than 200 people have now been infected with COVID-19 – the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus – in Italy and seven have died.
But the government has not advised against travelling to the areas, meaning people may be unable to claim back money if they decide to cancel trips.
It comes after British tourists last night attacked the Government’s ‘pitiful’ response to Italy’s coronavirus crisis.
Furious passengers set to travel to Italian cities hit by the outbreak said they had been left in the lurch with no official safety advice.
As other countries ramped up advice not to travel to the Italy crisis zone, Downing Street insisted Britain is ‘well prepared’ for an outbreak.
Italy has dramatically stepped up its fight to contain the virus after a huge spike in cases, with 229 diagnoses confirmed and seven dead.
The country has effectively placed 50,000 citizens in lockdown by shutting off more than a dozen towns and cancelling public events.
Britons returning from the worst-affected northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto are expected to be told to self-quarantine at home.
Mask: Soldier on patrol outside Milan’s Duomo yesterday after a spike in coronavirus cases
A tourist wears a face mask in Venice, where the annual Carnival has been scrapped for fear of spreading coronavirus
Taking no chances: Passengers wear masks and overalls on the Milan metro following the coronavirus outbreak
Speaking to Sky News this morning Mr Hancock said: ‘We’re saying that those who have been in Northern Italy, if they feel ill [with] flu-like symptoms, then you should self-isolate, stay at home, try not to see other people.
‘If you’ve been to Italy to the areas that are being quarantined by the Italian government then you should stay at home and self-isolate even if you don’t have any symptoms.’
He added that the government doesn’t think there are any Brits in the quarantined area but isn’t certain.
‘This development in Italy is obviously very worrying because it’s a signficant outbreak, over 200 people affected, including several people who’ve died.
‘But throughout this outbreak … we’ve been clear that we expect cases here so people shouldn’t be surprised that there are cases this close to home but it just shows how important preparations are.’
When asked whether he would travel to Italy Mr Hancock hesistated and said it would be ‘perfectly reasonable’ to go to the south of the country, but said he is ‘not planning on going’ to the north.
He added: ‘We haven’t changed the official government travel advice but I’m not planning on going.
‘And if people go and then they come back and feel ill with flu-like symptoms then we’re asking them to self-isolate, to stay at home for two weeks and to try not to come into contact with anybody else.
‘That is obviously quite a significant imposition on people. We get that but our top priority is to keep the public safe.’
The government’s advice is split into two parts.
People who have visited Iran, the South Korean cities of Daegu or Cheongdo or lockdown areas in Italy, which include the towns of Codogno and Fombio to the south of Milan, should self-isolate at home even if they feel healthy after returning.
Whereas those coming back from anywhere in Italy that is north of Pisa, or from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar should do the same if they start to feel ill.
Italy’s outbreak sparked panic across Europe, with buses and trains carrying Italian passengers across borders halted after those on board reported symptoms.
It comes as experts have branded the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus a pandemic ‘in all but name’.
In Europe, Austria threatened to close its borders if suspected carriers tried to enter from Italy, while Ireland and Serbia advised citizens not to travel to the affected areas in the north of the country.
The EU insisted it has no plans to close the Schengen travel zone to stop the spread but announced a £195million rescue plan.
The Italian government has launched a series of draconian measures to stop the spread, while desperately trying to trace ‘patient zero’ – the unknown carrier at the centre of the spike of cases.
More than two dozen flights are expected to leave the UK for northern Italy today.
British passengers yesterday told how they had cancelled trips over fears they could be trapped in Italy if the situation worsens.
In the first signs of strain, a British Airways flight from Heathrow to Milan was delayed by 20 minutes yesterday morning when a passenger asked to get off the flight over coronavirus fears.
A 67-year-old passenger who gave her name as Lea criticised the Government’s response as she cancelled a trip from Stansted to Venice yesterday.
An ambulance in a deserted Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown
Tourists wear protective facemasks as they visit Venice, where the Venice Carnival festivities have been axed for fear of compounding the country’s coronavirus woes
Carabinieri block the road in Zovon near Venice to limit the spread of coronavirus. Six deaths and 229 infections in Italy has fanned panic in neighbouring countries and sparked a clamour for governments to clamp down on border checks
She said: ‘The Government advice is not relevant to the situation. It’s pitiful and no help whatsoever to anybody.’
Diego Gullo, who flew from Milan to Gatwick on Thursday, told how he had placed himself and his family in quarantine after returning from Codogno, the town at the centre of Italy’s outbreak.
Speaking from his home in north London, he told Sky News: ‘I haven’t had any specific advice, there is no check in the UK.
We did call 111 and we were not told anything in particular… they suggested to just continue as usual.’
Airlines including Easyjet and Ryanair last night said flights would go ahead pending any official advice and that travellers were not entitled to refunds.
Italy has shut down at least 35 roads surrounding a cluster of towns in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, where the virus began to spread.
Those who attempted to leave were threatened with three-month prison sentences.
There have also been confirmed cases in the Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna regions.
Professor John Ashton, a former regional director of public health in north-west England, criticised Boris Johnson for not spelling out how Britain would respond to any eventual outbreak.
He said: ‘At the moment a lot of information is based on rumour.’ The virus has a 0.7 per cent mortality rate, WHO said yesterday.
Coronavirus epidemic ‘has PEAKED in China’ says World Health Organisation – but warn the rest of the world to prepare for a ‘potential pandemic’
By Jack Elsom for MailOnline
Coronavirus has now ‘peaked’ in China, according to the World Health Organisation which praised Beijing’s robust measures to insulate the outbreak.
While the number of cases continues to rise – surpassing 77,000 – the rate at which new infections are sprouting up has started decelerating.
But while officials firefighting the epidemic in China can take solace in the slow-down, other countries have been warned to brace for a ‘potential pandemic’ as the virus continues to spill out across the globe.
WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom said the peak in China occurred between January 23 and February 2, with the amount of fresh diagnoses ‘declining steadily since then’.
‘This virus can be contained,’ he told reporters in Geneva, praising China for helping to prevent an even bigger spread of the disease through unprecedented lockdowns and quarantines around the outbreak’s epicentre.
To quell the outbreak, Beijing has imposed drastic travel bans and quarantined entire cities – while also accused of scrubbing the internet of supposed scare stories.
But since coronavirus spawned in Wuhan late last year, it has spread to infect over 79,000 people globally and killing more than 2,600.
Dr Tedros Adhanom said coronavirus has now ‘peaked’ in China as the rate of new infections is slowly decelerating
Volunteer barbers cut the hair for medical workers at the residence of medical team for Hankou Hospital in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province
The WHO said the current crisis, which has infected almost 80,000 people and killed 2,600, is a cluster of cases in 36 countries and territories
The highly contagious bug has manifested itself in every continent except South America and Antarctica.
An acceleration of cases in other parts of the world has prompted similar drastic action to prevent the spread.
Italy has locked down 11 towns and South Korea ordered the entire 2.5 million residents of the city of Daegu to remain indoors.
The spread of the disease – officially known as COVID-19 – continued unabated with Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman announcing their first cases on Monday.
Iran has reported 12 deaths, but Tehran MP Ahmad Amiriabadi Farahani suggested the regime was suppressing the true figure.
Yet Dr Adhanom today refused to confirm the coronavirus crisis was yet to reach at pandemic levels.
After a spike in diagnoses, he said: ‘The sudden increase in new cases is certainly very concerning.
‘There is lots of speculation about whether this outbreak has now become a pandemic.
‘For the moment, we are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus and we’re not witnessing large scale disease or deaths.’
His comments came after the WHO admitted the killer outbreak will never be officially declared a pandemic.
Instead, the UN-body said the crisis has already been a public health emergency of international concern – the highest warning level – for a month.
But fears of a pandemic are mounting, with a surge in cases taking the world close to the ‘tipping point’ with 80,000 confirmed cases and 2,600 deaths.
The body, headquartered in Geneva in Switzerland, argues a pathogen must spread easily between humans across the world before it is called a pandemic.
The WHO said the current crisis is a cluster of cases in 36 countries and territories, which can be traced back to Asia.