School student isolated at home after coronavirus hits Brighton

A family has been urged to keep their child indoors for 14 days after a British man was diagnosed with coronavirus in Brighton.

One of the parents contacted the child’s school and said Public Health England advised them to self-isolate for two weeks.

In a message to parents, the Portslade Aldridge Community Academy said they would be informed if the student started showing symptoms of the deadly Sars-like virus.

It added: ‘We are working in collaboration with and being guided by the local authority and Public Health England to ensure that we at PACA are acting consistently with the right medical advice.’

The precautionary measure comes after a middle aged man took himself to Royal Sussex County Hospital last weekend with flu-like symptoms.

He was believed to have been diagnosed in Brighton before being transferred on Thursday to London’s St Thomas’ Hospital where he will remain for at least two weeks.

It is thought the unnamed man contracted the airborne virus in Singapore, although the Department of Health have not confirmed this.

Now the UK government is asking any travellers coming back from nine Asian countries to check for symptoms.

As well as China the advice has now extended to Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau.

The latest diagnoses brings the official number of people carrying the virus in the UK to three.

On Friday last week, two Chinese nationals were diagnosed after being taken ill at a hotel in York.

They had recently travelled from China and are still being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases centre in Newcastle.

One is a student at the University of York, while the other is a family member.

Five people from Britain including a nine-year-old child are currently in hospital in France after contracting the disease at a ski resort in the Alps.

They had all been staying in the same chalet at Contamines-Montjoie when they complained of being ill before being diagnosed.

Doctors say the patients are not thought to be in a serious condition and are being closely monitored in hospital.

Meanwhile a British newlywed couple have been torn apart on their honeymoon after the husband was diagnosed with coronavirus off the coast of Japan.

Alan Steele, 58, was one of 61 patients aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship to catch the disease and has been taken off the vessel for urgent treatment.

His wife Wendy Marshall Steele, 51, begged authorities to let her go with him, but the majority of passengers have been ordered to stay in their cabins as part of a 14-day quarantine.

Fortunately the lorry driver Alan, from Wolverhampton is said to be ‘doing well’ and is in good spirits in a Japanese hospital.

Two groups of Brits have been flown from Wuhan on UK government chartered flights and are currently being kept in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside.

The next group of UK citizens are expected to be quarantined for two weeks at a facility in Milton Keynes after a third repatriation flight organised for tomorrow.

More than 34,800 people have been affected across 27 countries by the new virus, which was thought to have broken out in December at a fresh food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

So far the illness has claimed more than 720 lives, the vast majority of which were lost in the People’s Republic.

Today it was confirmed that a US citizen died from the virus in Wuhan, the first non-Chinese national to be killed by the new disease.