Coronavirus: Brighton GP practice closes after staff member tests positive
The NHS took action after a staff member at the County Oak medical centre tested positive for the virus. …
A GP practice in Brighton has been temporarily closed after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus.
Patients at the city’s County Oak medical centre have been advised to contact the NHS 111 phone service if they have concerns.
Eight people in the UK have now been infected by the coronavirus.
The Department of Health has called the virus a “serious and imminent threat” to public health, but the overall risk level to the UK remains “moderate”.
There have been more than 40,000 cases of the virus globally, mostly in China. The total number of deaths in China is now 908.
One of the eight people inflected in the UK is a British man who caught the virus at a conference in Singapore and travelled to a ski resort in France.
He was diagnosed in Brighton, and is being treated at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
He has been linked to five of the other cases – four of which were announced on Monday.
In addition to the eight cases in the UK, five British nationals tested positive in France following the Brighton man’s trip to the ski resort.
The Department of Health has introduced new measures in England that mean those in quarantine will not be free to leave, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat.
The move comes after a passenger on the first UK flight from Wuhan, who is being held in quarantine on the Wirral, had been “threatening to abscond”, according to the BBC’s political correspondent Iain Watson.
Where had the Brighton coronavirus patient been?
The British man visited Singapore on business from 20 to 23 January, before staying at a chalet in the Alpine resort area of Les Contamines-Montjoie near Mont Blanc.
He flew back to the UK from Geneva on 28 January, easyJet confirmed.
Four adults and a nine-year-old child were subsequently diagnosed with the virus after coming into contact with him. They are not in a serious condition.
EasyJet said in a statement on Monday that health officials are trying to trace other passengers on flight EZS8481 to London Gatwick who might be at risk.
On his return to the UK, the Brighton man visited The Grenadier pub in Hove.
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