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There were further cases if COVID-19 confirmed by the CMO on Saturday February 29th.
Dr Bharat Pankhania, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School, said:
“The Surrey case indicates that we have a currently unknown source of infection somewhere in the UK. For containment purposes, the authorities will now have to conduct extensive contact tracing to try to identify the source. It’s important to stress that cases of this nature are to be expected when we have a new virus such as COVID-19 circulating, however it does indicate that advice on reducing the spread of infection should now be escalated. The best way to reduce risk of infection is to improve our own habits. Most of us are on autopilot when we cough and sneeze. We need to relearn good practice of carrying tissues and remember to cough or sneeze into a tissue and dispose of that promptly in a bin, and then immediately wash and dry hands. It’s also important to wash hands before every meal. There are a lot of resources available on proper handwashing, however I think we’d benefit from one centrally-endorsed step-by-step handwashing guide that is retaught at all levels.”
Prof Sheila Bird, Formerly Programme Leader, MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, said:
“Results from the UK’s organised, enhanced surveillance for COVID-19 via a) selected intensive care units and b) selected GP practices need to be reported separately from the other testing has that has been reported daily to-date.
“In particular, the daily update on the results of the above (and other bespoke) surveillances should be reported by the date on which samples were obtained, NOT by the date on which the test-results were obtained.
“By so doing, the UK would be setting a biostatistical and epidemiological reporting-standard that is globally-applicable: the importance of reporting separately on testing undertaken as part of organised surveillance rather than either contact-tracing or for the purposes of differential diagnosis in symptomatic persons.
“A third strand of UK’s current testing that should be separately reported concerns persons who – as requested by public health authorities – have self-quarantined on their return from any of the 11 lock-down locations in Italy and contacted NHS111 (irrespective of symptoms), Contacting NHS111 is crucial so that public health authorities know their location and can arrange for them to be tested. How many such travellers have contacted NHS111; how many have since been tested; what is the median delay between contact-date and sample-date. Finally, by sample-date, how many testees have tested negative for COVID-19 versus been diagnosed with COVID-19. Surveillance may be more intricate still with an additional “out-of-quarantine” test also offered so that the “Italy-11-lockdown” testees’ test-history may include at least two planned COVID-19 tests.
“Public co-operation with advice on self-quarantine and testing will be enhanced by better understanding of how their test results are being used for different surveillance purposes. Daily reporting of just number tested negative to date; number tested positive to date for COVID-19 is a poor reflection of the UK’s enhanced surveillance-network and, as such, undermines confidence in the intensity of analysis that the surveillance-network is designed for.”
Dr Robin Thompson, Junior Research Fellow in Mathematical Epidemiology, University of Oxford, said:
“An important thing to understand is the difference between the risk to individuals and the risk to the population. Given the low case numbers in the UK, it is unlikely that any specific individual will become infected at this time. However, the risk to the population more generally is moderate. It is likely that there will be more cases in this country, and plans are being made for the eventuality of sustained person-to-person transmission in the UK. Unless someone has been in close contact with people who are infected, the risk to that individual remains low.”
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public
All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:
http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19
The SMC also produced a Factsheet on COVID-19 which is available here:
https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/smc-novel-coronavirus-factsheet/
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