Public Health England (PHE) have announced that anyone returning from any part of Italy to self-isolate if they develop any symptoms associated with coronavirus.
England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Witty told a press conference on Thursday, the current advice for those returning from northern Italy is to be extended to the whole of the country.
Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London’s faculty of medicine has said Italy could have more than 100,000 coronavirus cases.
He estimates that are at least 50,000 to 100,000 of coronavirus across the country, which is the worst affected country in western Europe.
Professor Ferguson told the BBC’s Today programme people who have coronavirus, “were probably infected three weeks ago and for every person who dies we think there might be 100, maybe even 200 people infected.
“The lethality of this virus is not completely determined but it’s in that order… so the epidemic is probably doubling every week or so in Italy, so when you put those numbers together we’d estimate somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 cases at the moment in Italy.
“At least, it could even be higher, cases may still be being missed even in severe cases.”
Italy has closed all schools and universities across the country, affecting 8.5m students until 15 March, in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus.
Britain’s first death from the deadly coronavirus has been confirmed on Thursday afternoon. A man had tested positive on Wednesday evening and has now died as he had “underlying health conditions.”
In 48-hours the cases of coronavirus have more than doubled to 115 across the UK.
A statement from Royal Berkshire NHS Trust said, “Sadly, we can confirm that an older patient with underlying health conditions has died.”
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