Matt Hancock says UK cities could be put on lockdown if country is hit by widespread coronavirus outbreak

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Stephanie Cockroft1 March 2020

The Health Secretary has said the government could place UK cities on lockdown if the country is hit by a widespread coronavirus outbreak.

Matt Hancock said the UK had not ruled out following China’s lead and isolating cities in the case of a pandemic.

Asked if there was any circumstance in which the UK would "cut off a city", as Chinese authorities did with Wuhan, he told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: “There is clearly a huge economic and social downside to that.

"But we don’t take anything off the table at this stage, because you have got to make sure you have all the tools available if that is what is necessary.”

He confirmed that “population distancing measures” - such as banning public gatherings, cancelling football matches and encouraging people to avoid public transport - could also be considered if the situation escalates.

Matt Hancock said the UK had not ruled out following China’s lead
PA

“We are looking at all options, including those, but we will only look at things that epidemiologically and scientifically make sense," he said.

He conceded it was “inevitable” that the deadly virus would continue to spread after three new cases were identified in the UK , including a staff member at an infant school.

On possible school closures, Mr Hancock added: “It may be necessary, and I’m not saying any of these are decisions we have taken.

"But they are things we don’t rule out. But right now people should not opt to be closing schools if there isn’t a case and advice from Public Health England.”

Although Mr Hancock said more stringent measures could be considered to deal with the spread of the virus, he noted that stopping all flights from China - as pushed by some - had not proved successful for Italy, the worst-hit European country.

Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures

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Ministers have confirmed that “broader measures” will be considered to keep the public safe and ensure the NHS can handle the added strain.

The plans include a Dad’s Army-style emergency registration of health professionals who have retired, as well as relaxing rules around school class sizes in case teachers are off ill or forced to self-isolate.

Other proposals include introducing emergency indemnity coverage for healthcare workers to allow them to diagnose or care for those who contract the deadly illness.

Ministers are also considering whether to recommend more employees work from home and discourage “unnecessary travel”.

Mr Hancock insisted the NHS was ready to deal with coronavirus if the situation worsened, with more than 5,000 emergency critical care beds available.

He told Sky News: “Of course this would be a very big pressure on the NHS, depending on the scale of the impact.

“At the moment we have already expanded the number of high acute critical care beds that we need and we have the option to expand that further.

“We have expanded it to 50 in the first instance, when there are relatively few cases. But we can go up. We have plans to take that up to 500, and up to 5,000 if that’s necessarily. We have those plans in place.”

Mr Hancock said the public should continue to “go about their ordinary business”
PA

Mr Hancock said the public should continue to “go about their ordinary business” for the time being.

“If we get to a position where this is much more widespread, then of course we will change the advice to deal with that,” he told Sky News.

“But at this stage people should go about their ordinary business. There’s a danger to doing things too early because they wouldn’t be effective."

The UK currently has 23 confirmed cases of coronavirus but fears of a wider outbreak worsened after a man was diagnosed in Surrey on Friday . It was not clear if the patient had contracted the virus “directly or indirectly” from somebody who had recently travelled abroad.

On Saturday, three more patients in England tested positive for coronavirus - two who had travelled back from Italy, and another who had travelled back from Asia. One of the confirmed cases was a staff member at an infant school in Berkshire .

Meanwhile, the Irish Republic reported its first case of the virus on Saturday , where a man in the eastern part of the island tested positive after travelling from an affected area in Italy.

It comes as Donald Trump banned travel to Iran after America reported its first death from the virus. The US president added that he was considering additional restrictions, including closing the border with Mexico in response to the outbreak.

Elsewhere, the husband of British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe believes she has contracted coronavirus at the prison where she is being held .

Richard Ratcliffe said his wife has repeatedly asked to be tested for the virus at the Evin prison in Tehran after suffering from a “strange cold”.

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