the World Health Organization been
locked in at this emergency meeting all
afternoon and they're expected to make
their announcement shortly that
announcement whether this will be an
international public emergency similar
to Ebola or swine flu
now just behind me a plane landed about
an hour ago directly from Wuhan that 11
hour hour flight that landed here and
that's one of three flights that are
made every week to London's Heathrow now
authorities say that flight would have
gone through enhanced measures so what
does that mean the announcement would
have been made on the plane about the
situation about coronavirus the aircraft
would have been isolated when it landed
and also a health team would have gone
to meet the aircraft now there were no
confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK
and that's the situation that's the
measures that the authorities here have
put in place the Department of Health
public health England but the measures
in China have been much stricter when
you arrive from the epicentre of the
corona virus outbreak this is what
awaits you
passengers landing from Wuhan into
Beijing are greeted by Master fischels
in biohazard suits thermometers
screening for early signs of the virus
this is a country on high alert rule
meal unless for essential reasons we
suggest that people outside of Wuhan
don't go to Wu Han and Wu Han residents
then leave Wu Han this will reduce the
movement and reduce the transmission but
with one of the biggest festivals in the
Chinese calendar coming up the Lunar New
Year it might be difficult to keep a
city of over 11 million people on
lockdown there are now more than 500
confirmed cases of corona virus the vast
sprawling city of Wuhan in her by
province is where the virus was first
detected the outbreak has already hit
Hong Kong and several cities in China
including the capital Beijing and
Shanghai further cases have also been
confirmed in Thailand Japan and South
Korea outside of Asia the virus has now
reached the u.s. two
with a confirmed case near Seattle the
World Health Organization has only
declared a global health emergency five
times including for Ebola and swine flu
screenings are already happening at
airports around the world heat sensors
checking for a fever and medical workers
on standby and at London's Heathrow
where three flights a week come directly
from Wuhan
health officials say enhanced monitoring
will take place with what they say is a
rapidly evolving situation the risk of
the current time to the UK is law this
is a problem that's essentially focused
within China and efforts are being made
to eradicate or the stamp out the the
cases that are occurring in China and if
that's done effectively then then we
shouldn't see any cases in the UK back
in Wuhan the seafood market where the
virus is thought to have started is
still closed health workers are on the
front line dealing with a mysterious
virus they still don't know much about
my family are worried about our work
here and they get even more worried when
they see the news every day I always
tell them it's okay as were well
protected but I'm just saying that to
give them peace of mind we're actually
afraid and worried but as long as we're
on duty our own sense of mission will
support us to do the job out on the
streets workers are busy disinfecting in
an attempt to contain a virus that's
already spread far beyond the city well
joining me now is doctor and Gao ze
Ronde who's a bio security experts and
part of the Global Health Program at
Chatham House how worried should we be
in Britain well in Britain I think that
we should be concerned but not overly
worried it's we should be concerned
because this is a novel virus we don't
have that much information about it but
we know that it falls into the corona
virus family so like SARS are the Middle
Eastern respiratory syndrome MERS we
know that this type of virus could have
the potential to infect a lot of people
so it's something to be concerned about
but not overly worried the health
minister said that the fatality rate is
currently thought to be 2% so where does
that places in if
using different viruses I think it's
actually too early to really know what
the case fatality rate is I might be
wrong
that could be because the case fatality
rate is not just the number of people
who died in the people that we say our
cases right now some of the cases will
recover some of the cases will still die
so we actually don't have enough
information to calculate the case
fatality rate so we can't say how deadly
this virus is I mean at the moment the
w-h-o is saying that even though there
is human to human transmission we're not
sure how long that transmission could be
sustained so if it's sustained for a
longer period of time within one person
meaning that one person can infect
multiple people quite easily that's
something to be worried about and then
we'll have to increase precautionary
measures and how long does it take to
develop medical or immune responses to
something like this do you mean
interventions like yeah okay so we're
actually as a global community quite
equipped to take precautionary measures
for example in China's was just reported
there's already been quarantine measures
there's some countries within the region
that are also quarantine certain
passengers that have high fevers are
presenting with some of the symptoms of
that the novel coronavirus are causing
and so as a global community I think we
are quite equipped China is a bit
difficult especially right now because
of the Lunar New Year so I think that
the amount of influx of people means
that we have to be even more vigilant
but people will recall in previous
outbreaks of scary viruses you know
we've had lots of concern about the
supply of medicines like Tamiflu or
whatever it might be I mean are there
drugs available that would help patients
who contract this we actually don't know
at the moment right it's it's a new
virus it's something that we've never
seen before so we're not sure if there's
a specific medicine that Kidman can help
antivirals because it's a virus
antivirals should be effective but we're
not quite sure which one at the moment
right now the debate Joe is just
suggesting or recommending that we take
hygienic measures as in washing our
hands wearing masks I mean in China they
were in quite a few masks yeah and I
mean do you think the idea of just
telling patients who are coming off a
plane look if you're feeling ill then go
and see somebody is enough I mean you
know what isn't the norm
more reaction to people to go I don't
want to get caught up in that kind of
bureaucracy I don't know be quarantined
for six months I'm probably fine I've
just come off a long-haul flight that's
all
so you've seen you know what people are
people like it to comply with with
advice that says if you're feeling a bit
ill hand yourself in well I think that
it depends on the person but I think if
we continue to communicate risks
effectively so if the media the health
authorities are in alignment with really
communicating what we know and what we
do not know then I would think that the
public would make the choice to protect
themselves and protect their loved ones
as well because when there's an
infectious disease out there that
someone can contract it's not just about
used about your families about your
co-workers so I think the public would
make the right decision