Schools across the United Kingdom have closed in response to the growing European outbreak of the coronavirus, as two more people have been confirmed to have contracted the virus in England.
In Derbyshire, a primary school was closed following the return of a pupil’s parent, who had tested positive for the coronavirus after travelling abroad, prompting the school to close as a precautionary measure.
A GP in the area also closed after a case was confirmed at the practice, bringing the total number of people infected with the virus to fifteen in the UK.
“The virus was passed on in Italy and Tenerife and the patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres in Royal Liverpool Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, London,” Witty said per Sky News.
The two new cases bring the total number of infected people in the UK to 15. The newly infected patients will be held in quarantine at aa NHS infection specialist centre said The chief medical officer for England, Professor Chris Witty.
In Italy, there are now over 440 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and fourteen people have died. In Tenerife, 168 British citizens are currently in quarantine at the Costa Adeje Palace hotel, after the virus was discovered.
To date, at least eight schools have closed in order to protect students from contracting the coronavirus, with others sending students home if they came in contact with anyone who had recently travelled to northern Italy, the epicentre of the European outbreak.
Public Health England (PHE) has said that it will increase testings to determine “whether there’s evidence of infection more widespread than we think there is”. So far 7,132 people have been tested for the virus in the UK.
Worldwide the number of cases has topped 82,000 with over 2,808 confirmed deaths, reports The Telegraph. In Europe, three people have been confirmed to be infected in Greece and another three have been infected in Switzerland. Estonia and Denmark have both recorded their first case of the coronavirus as well.
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