A Chinese woman has brought the coronavirus from Britain back to her homeland after spending more than a month in London.
The news comes as the UK reports the biggest spike in its daily infections after 202 people were diagnosed in the past 24 hours.
It also comes after the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tested positive for the deadly disease following a trip to London.
A 48-year-old Chinese woman has been struck down with the killer infection after spending a month in London, according to officials in Beijing. Nearly 800 people have been infected with the novel coronavirus in the UK, and 10 people have lost their lives to the contagion
Beijing Centre of Disease Control and Prevention said in a press conference today that the patient arrived in London on February 1 and stayed in the city until March 4 when she returned. The picture shows two women wearing face masks as they walk in London on March 12
The news comes as the UK reports the biggest jump in its daily infections after 202 people were diagnosed in the past 24 hours, taking the number of cases to 798 and deaths to 10
The daily toll of coronavirus in Britain have been growing quickly since the beginning of March
The condition of the Chinese patient was revealed by officials in Beijing during a press conference today.
The 48-year-old woman, known by her surname Li, was diagnosed yesterday after flying out of London on March 4.
Ms Li stayed in the British capital from February 1 to March 4, said Beijing Centre of Disease Control and Prevention.
Ms Li did not have a fever when she arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport on the afternoon of March 5.
She took a taxi to her rented apartment and then started to self-isolate – a process imposed by the Chinese government on all people arriving in the country from overseas.
Ms Li did not have a fever when she arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport on the afternoon of March 5, officials said. The picture taken on March 12 shows travelers walking out from the international arrival exit at the Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport
Chinese authorities have demanded all travellers arriving from overseas stay at home for 14 days to self isolate. In the picture, hazmat-clad medical workers wait near police vehicles at the New China International Exhibition Centre near Beijing Capital Airport on March 13
Ms Li started to develop a fever and experience a sore throat on March 9 during the quarantine period. After taking the medicine she had ordered online, her symptoms subdued temporarily.
But two days later, she still had a sore throat and decided to seek medical advice.
Upon examination, doctors discovered that she had a minor fever of 37.7 degrees Celsius. CT scans of their lungs also showed ground-glass opacity – the partial filling of air spaces – in both organs.
Ground-glass opacity is frequently associated with consolidation, which is thickening or swelling of soft tissue. Consolidation is a symptom of pneumonia and can also cause pulmonary infections and breathing problems.
A young girl wearing a mask as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the COVID-19 is pictured posing for a photo at Yuyuantan Park in Beijing on March 13
Members of the Blue Sky Rescue team walk with their equipment after disinfecting a residential area as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus in Beijing on March 13
A Chinese family wear protective face masks walk in a a park in Beijing on March 13
Ms Li was classed as a suspected coronavirus patient on Wednesday and taken to a designated hospital for treatment.
She was confirmed to be infected on Thursday.
It is believed that the Beijing authority considers Ms Li an ‘imported case’ because the average incubation period of the virus is 14 days, meaning she most likely had caught the bug while in London.
She is being treated in quarantine and her condition is stable.
The authority has tracked down and quarantined 62 people who had come into close contact with Ms Li.
Earlier this month, a 35-year-old Chinese resident of Bristol was diagnosed during self-isolation after flying from London Heathrow to Shenzhen via Hong Kong on February 27.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has gone into isolation after his wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau tested positive for coronavirus.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau has tested positive for the coronavirus after taking a trip to London. Mr and Mrs Trudeau are pictured arriving for The Throne Speech at the Senate of Canada on December 5, 2019. Trudeau is in self-isolation
Europe now has a total of 28,550 cases, more than half of them in Italy, and 1,198 deaths
Trudeau’s office released a statement Thursday night confirming that the 44-year-old had tested positive for the virus.
‘She is feeling well, is taking all the recommended precautions and her symptoms remain mild,’ the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Justin Trudeau, 48, is ‘in good health’ has no symptoms but will be in isolation for 14 days, according to the statement. He is the first world leader to go into isolation.
Sophie Trudeau began to exhibit symptoms on Wednesday evening after returning to Canada from a trip to the UK where she attended the WE Day UK Charity event and concert in London on March 3.
Idris Elba, Jamie Oliver, race car driver Lewis Hamilton and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard were also present at the event.
The UK’s total number of coronavirus cases has soared to 798 after 202 people were diagnosed in the past 24 hours.
SPAIN: Catalan police officers stop a car trying to get into Igualada, one of the four towns closed down by regional authorities, at a checkpoint near Barcelona this morning
ITALY: A sanitation worker sprays disinfectant over a set of stairs in Brescia in northern Italy, which is already under quarantine
POLAND: Medical staff arrive in an ambulance at a public hospital in Lublin in Poland, a country which yesterday recorded its first coronavirus death
Wales confirmed 13 more cases of the killer coronavirus this morning, with another 189 confirmed in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland this afternoon.
It comes after Britain’s death toll yesterday rose to 10, with two older patients who had underlying health conditions becoming the latest victims.
Coronavirus fears have now gripped the UK – car parks were empty this morning and train stations and carriages deserted as commuters avoided busy areas.
The mass stay-away came after the Prime Minister yesterday announced a step-change in official advice and said people with mild symptoms such as a cough or high temperature must stay at home for seven days.
Officials on both sides of the Atlantic have said that Europe is now the new epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.
Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States, told US lawmakers in House hearing that ‘within the world now, over 70 per cent of new cases are linked to Europe. … Europe is the new China’.
The head of the Danish Health Authority, Soeren Brostroem, also said that ‘the epidemic has gotten a new epicentre, and that is Europe’.
He told reporters that ‘if one looks at day-by-day developments, Europe has the greatest growth now. And it is not just Italy, but also a number of other countries in Europe that have had a worrying development’.
Europe now has a total of 28,550 cases – more than half of them are in Italy – and 1,198 deaths.
Globally, more than 134,100 people have contracted the disease and over 5,000 have lost their lives to it.