It is being reported in the French press that less than a week after the death of a high-school professor in the Oise region of northern France, two other people have died from the coronavirus in the same hospital. Le Parisien newspaper says it has the information from three sources.
“The hospital at Compiegne has suffered two further deaths, according to the last information I have,” said Philippe Marini, the city mayor.
In Nice, a three year old child was admitted to hospital with the virus.
The UK government’s plan to tackle the coronavirus outbreak will be released tomorrow after Boris Johnson chaired his first emergency Cobra meeting, reports the Guardian political correspondent Kate Proctor.
Emergency legislation will also be introduced by the end of the month. This includes suspending rules on classroom sizes to try to keep nurseries and schools open. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
One of the purposes of the plan which we will be publishing will be to set out to the public some potential changes in relation to everyday things, action that might need to be taken to deliver that best possible response.
He added:
[The plan] was agreed by all four parts of the United Kingdom and they will be working closely together on ensuring we have the best possible response for dealing with the outbreak.
Significant work has gone on already, you will hopefully have seen the adverts in particular stressing the need for people to wash their hands but there will be further and extensive public information campaigns in the coming days and weeks.
Every Whitehall department in government was represented by a minister or secretary of state, and the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, and Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, the joint first minister of Northern Ireland, were also present via phone-ins or video links. The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, was not invited.
On criticism that the government has been slow to act over the virus, the spokesman said:
I simply don’t accept that. We have been taking extensive steps led by the best medical and scientific advice since the very beginning of this outbreak.
Updated
A 29-year-old Russian man diagnosed with coronavirus has became the country’s first citizen to be found ill with the disease while inside of the country, Andrew Roth reports from Moscow.
David Berov, who had returned from a ski trip to northern Italy on 23 February and checked into a hospital several days later, had tested positive for the disease, Russian authorities said on Monday. Two tests had returned negative results before a third test showed Berov was indeed infected with the coronavirus.
In a series of videos reposted by Russian media, Berov filmed scenes from his quarantine, where he was being held in a single room with other suspected coronavirus patients.
“When we got there we asked the medical staff why we are all lying together in the same room – any one of us could infect the others,” Berov told the Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper, by phone from the hospital. Doctors at Moscow’s Infectious Diseases hospital No 1 had later told him not to tell Russian health officials that he had been held in a single room with other suspected coronavirus patients, the paper said.
So far, two Chinese citizens have been diagnosed with the disease in Russia and since released from hospital. Three Russians onboard the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship hit by the coronavirus while it was docked in Yokohama, Japan, have also tested positive for coronavirus.
Russia has stepped up measures against coronavirus in recent days, banning entry to Chinese citizens and to most Iranian travellers, and also deploying dozens of medical staff clad in white protective suits to meet planes arriving from Italy. More than 200 suspected coronavirus patients have been admitted to hospital in Moscow alone, Russian authorities have said.
Updated
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has published an up to date list of cases of infection and fatality within the European economic area, the UK, San Marino, Monaco and Switzerland, Daniel Boffey reports.
There have been 2,199 cases and 38 deaths reported: Italy (1,689), France (130), Germany (129), Spain (83), UK (36), Switzerland (24), Norway (19), Sweden (14), Austria (14), Netherlands (13), San Marino (8), Greece (7), Croatia (7), Finland (6), Denmark (4), the Czech Republic (3), Iceland (3), Romania (3), Belgium (2), Estonia (1), Ireland (1), Lithuania (1), Luxembourg (1) and Monaco (1).
The EU organisation said that of the fatalities 35 deaths were in Italy; two deaths have been reported in France, and one death has been reported from San Marino.
Updated
The Bank of England has promised to do whatever it can to shore up the economy against the impact of coronavirus after mounting anxiety about the disease sent stock markets into freefall, Rob Davies reports.
The value of FTSE 100 companies slumped by £200bn last week, in tandem with a broader global sell-off in which global stock markets suffered their steepest falls since the 2008 financial crisis.
However, Asian markets rallied overnight as investors gambled that central banks will respond by cutting interest rates to stimulate growth, offsetting the coronavirus effect.
The UK’s central bank joined the Bank of Japan in telling investors that it is keeping tabs on the situation and stands ready to use its monetary policy levers to promote financial stability.
“The Bank is working closely with HM Treasury and the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] – as well as our international partners – to ensure all necessary steps are taken to protect financial and monetary stability,” a spokesman said.