Boris Johnson warns coronavirus 'will get worse before it gets better'

Boris Johnson announced on Sunday the government was establishing a "war room" in the Cabinet Office, bringing together experts to respond to the growing crisis of the coronavirus.

The prime minister admitted that the situation will get worse before it gets better, saying there would "clearly" be more cases as the virus "spread a bit more," The Telegraph said in a report.

Coronavirus has entered a stage where it can no longer be contained in Britain and public health efforts must move towards delaying the spread, the report added.

A patient in Essex has become the second person in Britain to test positive without having recently traveled abroad as Scotland reports its first case, raising concerns that the virus is advancing in Britain undetected.

Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said the patient “had no relevant travel” and that an investigation to determine whether the patient contracted the virus directly or indirectly from someone who had recently returned from overseas was presently being carried out.

It would appear, judging by this case, that Britain is nearing the stage where containment is no longer possible as those spreading the virus are either unaware they are infected, or are diagnosed too late to prevent onward transmission.

Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said, “This really adds to the supposition that many are now making that this one is going to be very hard to put back in the box. It makes it particularly difficult to control any outbreak if there are people who don’t know they’re spreading it.”

The 13 new cases reported on Sunday, bringing the total UK infections to 36, is the largest single-day increase of new cases in the UK so far. One of the new cases is the first to be reported in Scotland, while two cases in total had previously been reported in Northern Ireland and Wales.

The patient in Scotland, who is a resident of the Tayside area and had recently traveled from Italy, has been admitted to hospital and is receiving treatment in isolation.

Johnson will chair a Cobra meeting on Monday to review the next steps aimed at containing the virus, and will tell those signing off the strategy that the government will “stop at nothing” to fight the disease.

The meeting will be attended by senior ministers as well as Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance in order to ratify the government’s proposed countermeasures.

The prime minister is set to tell those at the meeting: “The number of coronavirus cases around the world is rising every day – and the UK is no exception. There now seems little doubt that it will present a significant challenge for our country.

“But we are well prepared, and the government and the NHS will stop at nothing to fight this virus. This battle plan lays out in detail the measures we could use – if and when they are needed.”

Johnson had been dubbed a “part-time” prime minister by critics for failing to take charge of a Cobra meeting before this week.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, confirmed on Sunday that the government would publish its approach to coronavirus this week but conceded that it was inevitable that the virus would continue to spread across the UK and did not rule out following China’s lead and isolating cities to contain the virus.

“There is clearly a huge economic and social downside to that,” Hancock told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. “But we don’t take anything off the table at this stage because you have to make sure you have all the tools available if that is what is necessary.”

Emergency powers to slow the spread of the virus, if it becomes endemic, would only be temporary, Hancock added. He said “population distancing measures” such as banning public gatherings and cancelling football matches might be considered and closing schools could become necessary.

Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: “Although it may still be possible to prevent a community-wide epidemic, this is looking increasingly unlikely and we should be prepared to cope with a more widespread epidemic on our shores.”

Six of the new cases had recently returned from Italy and two from Iran. All of the new patients, from London, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire, are being investigated and their close contacts traced.

One of the newly confirmed cases is a patient from Bury in Greater Manchester, who is being treated at a specialist NHS infection center, according to Bury council. Will Welfare, the interim deputy director of health protection for Public Health England North West, said the agency was tracing people who had close contact with the patient, who became infected while in Italy.

Another case, identified on Saturday, is a member of staff at St Mary’s school in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. The school has been closed until at least Wednesday because of “operational difficulties” with staff rather than any ongoing health risk, according to a letter sent to parents from Jo Woolley, the headteacher. She said a deep clean was carried out on Saturday and that all people who had contact with the infected staff member had been spoken to.

“The thing I would urge every organisation and every business to do is to really start planning, as of now, for how people are going to manage to work remotely and cover each other’s jobs in the event that people have to take time off from work,” said Openshaw. “It’s planning for resilience in the eventuality that the spread is going to continue.”

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