the patient had been in and out of
hospital for issues unrelated to the
corona virus but when they were tested
at the Royal Berkshire Hospital last
night it was confirmed that they had the
virus the death is the first in Britain
where there are now at 116 confirmed
cases the chief medical officers the UK
is preparing to move from the contain
into the delay phase of dealing with the
outbreak the second phase means that
measures to tackle it will now be ramped
up our health and social care
correspondent Victoria McDonald has this
report
since the first cases of coffered 19
were found in the UK it was inevitable
there would be some deaths yet it still
came as a shock late this afternoon the
Royal Berkshire Hospital said that a
patient has died in a statement they
said sadly we can confirmed an older
patient with underlying health
conditions has died the patient has
previously been in and out of hospital
for non coronavirus reasons but on this
occasion was admitted and last night
tested positive for coronavirus the
family has been informed and our
thoughts are with them at this difficult
time our sympathies are very much with
the victim and their family but the
situation is is pretty much as it has
been in the sense that we're still Sam
in the in the contained phase though now
our scientists and medical advisors are
making preparations for the delay phase
only this week the NH has told all 135
acute hospital trusts in England to
routinely test anyone in intensive care
units who had a breathing problem
this patient is believed to a contracted
the virus in England and contact tracing
is already underway the evidence so far
in this global epidemic is that the
elderly with underlying health
conditions are at higher risk of dying
from covered 19 like many care homes
Nightingale Hammerson and South London
is already putting in place contingency
plans at the moment we are mainly
focusing on the prevention of the
of any kind of spread or outbreak we are
speaking with the residence relatives
and all the visitors of the care home to
prompt them to wash their hands with the
soap and water as the most effective way
of preventing the spread of cholera no
virus or any other sort of virus staff
were indeed being shown how to wash
their hands today and under ultraviolet
light also shown just how difficult it
is to remove all the germs okay your
ring your nails like anywhere
coronavirus is making headline news I am
concerned but I just have to put up with
it so are you worried I know more than
anybody else it is obvious why care
homes have to take extra precautions
elderly people are particularly
vulnerable to this virus so that could
mean if it reaches epidemic proportions
that they have to take hard decisions
that could include preventing visitors
coming in or even stopping gatherings
like this in keeping residents and their
own rooms
MPs heard today that half of all the
coronavirus cases in the UK are most
likely to occur in just a three week
period with 95% of them over nine weeks
raising questions about how the NHS will
cope the bit of the system which will
come under pressure first will be those
conditions that require people to have
oxygen and particularly to have critical
care beds and that bit I think will come
come under pressure at quite an early
stage if we have a high end of the range
epidemic for this why the general
services will be much less affected and
I think for example Children's Services
because children seem to be relatively
spared from this disease I think will be
relatively much less effective with
cases in the UK now over the 100 mark
experts say there is evidence of
community transmission that is patients
developing symptoms who have not been
abroad but the majority of the cases are
still imported and tonight the NHS
said people returning from anywhere in
Italy not just northern parts of the
country should self isolate if they
believe they have symptoms of the
coronavirus Victoria McDonald with that
report well join him in our by Skype
from Oxford Asst professor Sean
Griffiths a public health expert who's
an Emiratis professor at Hong Kong
University she co-chaired the inquiry
into the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003
thanks for coming on the program again
Sean what is your reaction first of all
to this very sad news that the first
British victim has died of the corona
virus here well it is sad news and our
thoughts are obviously with the family
but if we look at what our expectations
we did expect the numbers of the cases
of the disease to grow we did it's and
as they grow then unfortunately some
people will not survive so it's I know
everyone's saying this is a shock and I
think the reason it's a shock is that
we've been in in a situation where the
majority of cases in the country have
come back from overseas we've been able
to trace where they've come from and and
that sort of comforting in a way because
you can trace the pattern of disease
when you can't treat it can no longer
work out where the disease has come from
when we've got communities spread but
that's when anxiety grows and and I
think that's this is symbolic of the the
growth and anxiety that we have may have
more people in the community than we
know about who have the disease just as
they found in other parts of the world
of course we'll get on to that in a
minute but this patient only tested
positive last night and died during the
course of the day does that tell you
anything in particular I know nothing
about the clinical nature of for all
conditions of this patient so I really
can't comment on this case so I don't I
draw anything very much just from the
facts that we've been told all right now
we saw in Victoria's report there you
know lots of elderly people who are you
know in vary degrees of worry about this
what should L der liebe Britain's
citizens do to protect themselves from
this the messages remain that we should
all
be very careful about washing our hands
and that's all of us not just the
elderly people who who you know I think
I possibly come into that group as well
and you know we need to take it more
seriously that we do need to wash our
hands properly we do need to to make
sure we don't touch our hands and our
eyes we need to take all those
containment measures as seriously as we
can and at the same time I think keeping
healthy that also helps so that that
helps to be keeping healthy all of us
need to keep that message and to keep
home with life as normal as possible
whilst being aware that obviously the
virus is around so if we get symptoms to
report the symptoms to one one one that
will be my advice okay because that's
sort of carry on life is normal and the
decisions about other things that will
happen around us will be taken by local
authorities or by the government now we
mentioned Italy in the introduction
there and the number of cases there
really is quite alarming I mean I think
the infections over 3,000 the numbers of
deaths
I think 150 in a given the increase in
cases in this country is Italy our
imminent future can we be where they are
in two weeks from now well these are
questions that one can't answer it is a
possibility it's probably not a
probability it's a possibility but I
think the appearance of the disease in
places like Korea or Italy have been
that the cases have there's been quite a
focus for the disease it's probably been
in the community world before it's been
diagnosed and so it's got a grip that
definitely happened in wuhan that the
disease got a grip in the community
before it was made more widespread
knowledge of it was mable widespread and
the containment measures were put into
place so we we have been doing a lot in
this country in terms of raising
awareness in terms of preparation
preparation in in the NHS preparation in
others so there's lots of planning
that's been going on that the real
question is will the plans work when we
need them and you know will the
pressures be too great
thank you very much indeed thank you
well earlier I spoke to Jeremy Hunt the
chair of the Health Select Committee and
former health secretary I started by
asking now we have moved closer to the
delay phase in dealing with the virus is
that an illustration of just how serious
this is absolutely and it's not just
that we moved into that second phase but
there is now very active planning going
on for the final phase which is called
the mitigate phase when you know we may
have to get our heads around perhaps 20%
of the population catching the virus
which is the prevalence rate in Hebei
province in China the epicenter of the
disease and so that's that would be huge
in terms of the implications it's not a
prediction but the preparations are
happening for that kind of disruption
and that's why we heard for example that
they're looking at
allowing final year medical students to
practice as doctors or foundation year
one junior doctors to do things they
wouldn't ordinarily be allowed to do so
there is a lot of effort going into
expanding the capacity of the NHS that
does raise the question are you
confident if this worst-case scenario
does happen that the NHS can cope I do
think the NHS is one of the best
prepared systems across the world I
think it came second in the global
health security index of countries
around the whole world in terms of
preparedness and it's able to do things
because of the centralized structures
that other health systems find very
difficult like the decision this week to
test all pneumonia patients so there are
some advantages but the pressures will
be very severe yeah and they're really
critical pressure points aren't they
because Nordics and the chief executive
of the NHS Confederation raises a really
big concern today about whether British
hospitals have enough respiratory
resources to deal with everyone who
might get this virus and he thinks they
don't that's really worrying isn't it
that is definitely the biggest pressure
point because you know this is a
respiratory virus that
how its spread and you know the the
people the purport the part of the
population that are most at risk are
older people who have long term
conditions affecting their breathing and
so that's what the preparations are
being focused on at the moment don't
have the respiratory resources to deal
with that that is the real danger for
those older people who are most
vulnerable of course and that's why they
are looking at flexing the treatment I
know there's an enormous effort at the
moment to reduce the occupancy in
intensive care units to prepare
ourselves but also I think there was
honesty from the chief medical officer
this morning that you know there would
be an impact even on some urgent
treatments but he was also confident
that a system like the NHS is able to
flex the care it gives one of the points
he made was that the the peak pressure
on the NHS will be for about three weeks
so there's a three week period when I
think things will be very very difficult
and what I know they will do is to try
and make sure that as much treatment has
happened as possible happens either
before that three-week period or after
it timing is therefore absolutely
essential there is a question about
whether the NHS anyway is coping the
National Audit Office today warned that
there are not not enough for nurses and
that surely is partly because of your
failure as health secretary to deliver
on that well I don't think it's the time
for sort of having party political
discussion I will answer that question
very directly when I was health
secretary I announced a 25 percent
increase in nurse training places and
the National Audit Office did say today
that there's been a five percent
increase overall in the number of nurses
but it's probably not enough you know
any health system when you have a
pandemic is going to be under severe
pressure on that critical issue of
nurses how do you make sure that we get
enough nurses given that post brexit
given that we're in the middle of a
coronavirus where countries will be
desperately trying to hang on to their
nurses we're facing a really difficult
situation here aren't we
well we are and that's why the long term
approach is obviously to train more
nurses and that's going to happen but in
the short term there are lots of things
that you can do to relieve pressure and
that's why the government's been talking
about inviting back people who've
recently retired it's a very short
period of three to nine weeks where you
have that big big increase in pressure
and so there are things that you can do
for a short period to relieve the
pressure but the timing is going to be
absolutely crucial
are we moving towards the situation
we're seeing in Italy say when you're
talking about closing down schools
well what Professor Witte said was that
is now the live debate in government and
it's a very difficult judgement call for
ministers because on the one hand
although children aren't the worst
affected by coronavirus they do appear
to be capable of catching it and
spreading it weighed against that is
that if you start closing schools their
mums and dads can't go to work and that
will include doctors and nurses in the
NHS who you very much need to be able to
go to work so it's a very difficult
judgment call we can see what's happened
in Italy and in Japan and I think that's
what ministers are going to be weighing
up very carefully in the next few days
Jeremy Hunt the former health secretary
there the number of cases continues to
rise across the world so what is the
impact of covered 19 on other countries
well in Iran officials have announced
new measures to fight the spread and
checkpoints are being set up to limit
travel between major cities when people
are being urged to reduce their use of
bank notes so far a hundred and seven
people have died and over three and a
half thousand cases have been confirmed
in South Africa's the Minister of Health
has confirmed their first case it's now
the seventh African nation to report an
infection confirmed case is a 38 year
old man who had recently come back from
a trip to Italy with his wife and 10
others a number of sporting events have
been affected England's Six Nations game
against Italy on March 14th in Rome has
been postponed because of the outbreak
organisers said the men's women
and under-20s contest will be played at
a later date