thousands of miles from Wuhan but the
coronavirus has now reached this
picturesque ski resort high in the
French Alps proof this is no longer just
China's problem five Britons one of them
a child have tested positive they are on
holiday in a chalet in the town of leh
contemn Iman jawar they've been in close
contact with another Briton it's thought
that man contracted the virus on a
three-day visit to Singapore last month
he then flew to the French Alps for a
few days before returning to the UK he's
thought to be the first Briton to
contract the disease and is now being
treated in a London hospital the
positive cases and the contacts as
British national had with others eleven
British people in total were all staying
in the same chalet and were hospitalized
during the night in three hospitals
they're not in a serious condition
another Briton Alan Steele has tested
positive while on honeymoon with his
wife on board the diamond Princess
cruise liner
he's now in hospital in Japan his wife
is still on board the ship 64 passengers
have tested positive and are now in
hospital the rest more than three and a
half thousand are confined to their
cabins a British passenger filmed on
deck when he and his wife were allowed
out for a walk he says that only happens
once every four days I know this sounds
really strange but the thing that we
both noticed is that our legs were
aching because we haven't had that level
of exercise you know we haven't been
able to walk anywhere at a distance
being confined to the cabin in Majorca
and other British family is in a
hospital isolation ward awaiting the
results of tests for the virus
the Chinese authorities are still keen
to promote an image of order this is one
of the new hospitals built in a matter
of days patients with masks the calmly
accompanied in for treatment but 86
people died in the last 24 hours
according to official figures the
largest number in one day the death toll
now at 723 according to the World Health
Organization and on social media the
authorities seem anything but calm I
don't have money to buy a mask this
woman tells police officers that she's
arrested others are dragged from their
homes a hundred and fifty Britons are
due to be flown home from Wuhan
overnight they'll then be kept in
quarantine for two weeks in Milton
Keynes only three people have tested
positive in the UK and the World Health
Organization says the spread of the
disease remains slow outside China
Jaynes reporting with early I expect a
professor Trudy Lang director of the
Global Health Network at Oxford
University I started by asking her if
she was concerned about the new
infections in France I think it's we
would have expected to see this sort of
transmission and it is showing that we
are seeing person-to-person transmission
beyond those people immediately coming
from the center of the infection in
China but not as many sort of huge
numbers and I suppose the good thing is
it's look at how quickly it's being
tracked you know he was was was
diagnosed in the last few days and then
they found these cases in France that
does it surprise you that there's such a
vast discrepancy between the number of
infections in China itself I mean over
32,000 cases and the real very small
number comparatively in the rest of the
world is that unusual well everything is
unusual because it's a it's a new virus
and so we we're all watching and seeing
how it unfolds I think you know the
numbers in China
carrying on in the same rate so far with
the same level of mortality and but we
haven't seen such
rapid transmission outside of China so
far which is very reassuring do you
think that we're overreacting then I
mean that the Chinese are overreacting
is shutting down
entire cities you know the entire
economy is gone to lockdown moment you
know we're banning you know certain
flights coming in from China Royal
Caribbean cruises has you know stopped
anyone with the Chinese passport or a
Hong Kong pass but from getting on one
of their ships should we be more afraid
of the overreaction than of the virus
itself
China's being incredibly responsible the
whole aim is to is to halt transmission
and isolate infected people and stop
that person-to-person transmission and
so the really difficult line to tread is
how far you go with you know shutting
schools stopping travel and I think the
response in China is proportionate and
then in other places of the world it has
to be proportionate to the number of
cases you know here in the UK then the
risks that the individual is still
reported to be to be low because it is
and so the reaction needs to be
proportionate and take that really
difficult line between you know really
stopping transmission as as effectively
as possible by limiting people being
near each other first is the economic
impact of an overreaction so it's right
and in terms of dinner comparing that to
the general you know the the annual flu
I mean I think last year thirteen
thousand eight hundred people died in
the United States of the flu so again
you know comparing the numbers today of
the novel coronavirus
to the regular flu numbers you know
we're nowhere near that kind of
seriousness in terms of the number of
fatalities the number of cases are
reporting of actual diagnosed cases it
is probably a far higher number which
would bring the mortality debt rate down
even further under two percent which
gets much nearer the normal seasonal flu
which will go through a population and I
think so that's a really really
responsible and sensible comparison to
make on that note professor Tuesday
thanks very much