Coronavirus-related deaths rise amid expected toughened Government response

Boris Johnson was expected to move to the delay phase of tackling the UK spread of coronavirus as two more deaths were announced.

Two people have died in London bring the total to 10, say the Department of Health and Social Care.

The latest deaths were of an 89-year-old at Charing Cross Hospital in London and a woman in her sixties at Queen’s Hospital in Romford. Both had underlying health conditions.

As of 9am today, 590 people have tested positive a leap from 456 cases 24 hours earlier.

A Dudley hospital patient died yesterday after testing positive for coronavirus.

A patient in Wolverhampton on Monday.

Two more people were also diagnosed with Covid-19 in Wolverhampton yesterday, bringing the total number of cases in the city to five.

A jet carrying 135 British nationals and their dependants who had been aboard a cruise liner quarantined over a Covid-19 outbreak, has landed at Birmingham Airport.

The Kalitta Air charter flight touched down at about 5pm yesterday.

Ground crew, including some in white overalls and face masks, could be seen around the aircraft.

In further developments:

• Wolves' Europa League tie at Olympiacos is set to go ahead though the competition could be suspended next week due to the coronavirus.

• Extra cleaning is being carried out on trains in the West Midlands in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.

• US President Donald Trump said last night he was suspending all travel between the United States and Europe – excluding the UK and Ireland – for 30 days starting on Friday as he seeks to combat the coronavirus.

• Irish premier Leo Varadkar said schools, colleges and childcare facilities will close until March 29 as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, which is now regarded as a global pandemic.

• The Who have postponed their UK and Ireland tour, which was due to stop at Birmingham Resorts World Arena on April 1, due to concerns around fan safety.

• Tom Hanks has announced he and wife Rita Wilson have been diagnosed with coronavirus. The Oscar-winning actor, 63, has been in Australia filming an upcoming Elvis Presley biopic.

Extra hospital beds ordered

More hospital beds will be introduced across the West Midlands to help ease the pressure on stretched NHS services and staff.

NHS leaders said staff plan for annual flu pandemics and strategies were in place to manage the outbreak.

There are already plans for extra beds to be brought into Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital after its struggles to get patients seen on time.

And staff at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital have urged people not to attend hospitals unnecessarily to reduce strain on wards.

Lisa Stalley-Green, head nurse at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and also director of infection prevention, said: "We plan every year for flu pandemic and our planning has been underway in the Trust for about six weeks now. So a lot of that we have tested out.

"We've started to look at what we would change across the Trust. I think for many of us in the Trust we're used to major incidents.

"We're looking to increase the number of beds across the region. We do have space and expertise across the Trust to deal with people who are particularly poorly."

She added: "We don't want people coming in unnecessarily. We can do lots of our work in consultations and outpatients over the wire, face to face over technology or on the phone. Unless people need to come in for a specific examination.

"We do have people spending more time at home and we need to support them with that. They don't need to come into hospital. They don't need to find a place to park. They don't need to pay parking charges."

Testing began at a drive-thru centre off Stafford Road in Wolverhampton yesterday morning with more people believed to have been seen today.

Sandwell health officials revealed they were in talks to establish the borough's own site, with the NHS in England planning to “ramp up” testing facilities so that 10,000 coronavirus tests can be performed each day.

Dudley North MP Marco Longhi said: "I am extremely sorry to hear of the passing of an elderly gentleman, with underlying medical conditions, who had contracted the COVID-19. I would like to offer my sincere condolences to his family and friends.

"I want to reassure residents that the NHS is well prepared to deal with incidents like this, and I am assured that the Government has a clear path to ensure the public is protected."

Meanwhile a teacher at a Tipton school was sent home after being in contact with someone being tested for coronavirus.

A spokesman for RSA academy said: “On Monday 9 March 2020, we had a member of staff report that they had been in contact with a family member who was being tested for Covid-19.

"Whilst Government guidelines state that a contact is safe to remain in work until any cases are confirmed, in order to safeguard all members of our community we took the additional precaution of sending the member of staff home on the same day.

"As you know, Public Health England will contact any school or place of work if a member of staff or student is a diagnosed case. We have not as yet been contacted by Public Health England."

West Midlands Railway said it is taking “extra steps” to keep surfaces on trains clean while Network Rail has stepped up its cleaning regime of equipment such as ticket machines, barriers and lifts at New Street Station.

But bosses at National Express, which run coaches and many bus services in the region, and the Metro said they are still monitoring the situation and will act if advice from Public Health England changes.

West Midlands Railway did not specify what the extra steps were but added staff were also being coached on good hand hygiene.

A spokesman said: “The rail industry is following the latest Public Health England guidelines closely.

“We are ensuring railway staff are kept aware of the latest advice to maintain good hand hygiene and we are taking extra steps as necessary to keep surfaces clean, particularly in customer-facing locations.”

Network Rail said it was also carrying out additional measures in a bid to curb the spread of the infectious COVID-19 virus.

A spokesman said “Teams are carrying out daily deep cleans of Birmingham New Street station, including high touch areas such as ticket machines, barriers and lifts.”

West Midlands Metro has not increased cleaning on the trams at this stage and a spokesman said: “We are following the general advice of Public Health England and monitoring the situation closely in liaison with local health authorities.

Emergency meeting over outbreak

The Prime Minister has held an emergency Cobra meeting where ministers are expected to agree to move into the "delay" stage of the process.

Moving to delay would mean social distancing measures could be brought in, such as restricting public gatherings and issuing more widespread advice to stay at home.

Downing Street said it was taking a UK-wide approach, indicating that Northern Ireland would not be following the steps taken in Ireland.

"We have been in regular dialogue with Irish counterparts," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.

"In terms of our own response, we have said that we want it to be a UK-wide response and we have been working with the four chief medical officers and devolved administrations."

Asked about the difference in the approach in Dublin, the spokesman added: "We follow our own advice, they will do the same."

But despite Number 10's suggestion there would be a UK-wide approach, Scotland appeared set to take its own action by cancelling gatherings of more than 500 people.

Thursday's Cobra meeting comes after eight people with Covid-19 were confirmed to have died in the UK, while the total number of positive cases rose to 460.

A Cabinet minister, who has not been named, was self-isolating while awaiting a test result after coming into contact with health minister Nadine Dorries.

Ms Dorries is self-isolating at home after being diagnosed with the illness.

A source confirmed fellow health minister Edward Argar is also self-isolating at home "as a precaution" after having lunch with Ms Dorries on Thursday, the day she started to feel unwell.

Mr Sunak told the BBC: "This has obviously now impacted Parliament and government, and we are dealing with it, like all other businesses are going to have to start dealing with it."

Public Health England was carrying out a "very thorough and rigorous process" to trace people who had been in close contact with Ms Dorries, he said.

In other developments:

• The annual St Patrick's reception at the White House was cancelled, although Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was still expected to hold talks with Mr Trump

• The FTSE 100 index of leading London-listed companies fell more than 5% in early trading following the World Health Organisation's declaration of a pandemic

• Barchester Care Homes, which runs more than 200 care homes in the UK and has more than 11,000 residents, sent a letter to residents, patients and visitors saying it was stopping family members and friends making routine visits to its homes. It later said it meant visits should be "minimised".

• Twitter has informed all staff globally they must work from home as the social media platform heightened its response to the coronavirus outbreak

• A paramedic with the East of England Ambulance Service has tested positive for coronavirus.

Mr Sunak said Mr Trump's decision to halt travel to the US from most of Europe could have a knock-on effect on the UK economy.

Asked about the impact on business and tourism that the ban is likely to have, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The US is still deciding the details of what exactly that means, but you are right.

"As I talked about yesterday, there will be an impact on the demand side of our economy as people are unable to spend in the way they normally would and travel, but it also affects the supply chains for businesses and that impacts the supply side of our economy.

"As those supply chains are disrupted, the productive capacity of our economy will shrink for a period of time.

"With regard to flight bans, we are always guided by the science as we make our decisions here and the advice we are getting is that there isn't the evidence that interventions like closing borders or travel bans are going to have a material effect on the spread of the infection."