Coronavirus: UK officials scramble to find patients of infected healthcare workers

Pair believed to have been in contact with about 12 patients

Officials are hunting for patients of two healthcare workers who are among eight people to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK.

The pair, who were working at a general practice in Brighton, are believed to have been in contact with about a dozen patients.

They were two of four new cases announced on Monday, all of whom contracted the virus in France and are now being treated at specialist infection centres at St Thomas’ and the Royal Free hospitals in London.

According to reports, one of those infected was a female GP.

The County Oak Medical Centre in Brighton closed its doors “because of an urgent operational health and safety reason” as the latest cases were announced.

People wearing protective full body suits and gloves were seen cleaning the centre in footage shared online on Monday.

World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the latest cases were “concerning instances of onward transmission from people with no travel history to China”.

However Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said patients “should not be alarmed as it is still more likely that anyone with flu-like symptoms will have the flu”.

He added: “In light of the members of staff who tested positive for coronavirus in Brighton we’d like to remind the public that it is vital that any patient who thinks they may have symptoms does not try to attend a GP appointment or hospital emergency departments in person.

“They should stay at home and call NHS 111.”

Signs warning patients about the novel coronavirus outbreak pictured at The County Oak Medical Centre, in Brighton, 10 February, 2020. (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Public Health England medical director Yvonne Doyle said officials are “working urgently to identify all patients and other healthcare workers who may have come into close contact” with the two infected healthcare workers but “at this stage we believe this to be a relatively small number”.

The four new UK cases were announced as the government declared coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat to public health”.

Announcing new legal powers, the Department of Health said people with coronavirus can now be forcibly quarantined, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat.

It is understood the decision was in response to one of the Britons who returned from Wuhan in China, the source of the coronavirus outbreak, attempting to leave isolation at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside.

However officials stressed the risk to the public has not changed.

Britons who have been flown back from Wuhan are currently being held at Arrowe Park Hospital and Kents Hill Park in Milton Keynes.

The first two people in the UK confirmed to have coronavirus – a University of York student and their relative – are still being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases centre in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Researchers in China have said the virus can have an incubation period of up to 24 days.

However currently, the World Health Organisation estimates the incubation period to be up to 14 days, and recommends that the follow-up of contacts of confirmed cases is the same period.

The death toll rose to 1,018 on Monday – with all but two of those in China.

Worldwide, more than 43,000 people have been infected by the virus.

Additional reporting by Press Association