{UAH} CORONA VIRUS COULD KILL AHALF MILLION PEOPLE IN THE UK
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Health Secretary Matt Hancock has urged schools not to close because of coronavirus scares as more than 30 around the country have been caught up in panic and confusion after children returned home from ski trips to Italy.
Hundreds of cases of the virus have been diagnosed in people in northern Italy since Friday as dozens of school trips made their way home from half-term trips.
Some headteachers have taken evasive action and shut down schools after staff and students came down with 'mild flu-like symptoms' after returning from the Alps.
Others have sent home the pupils and staff who went on the trips to Italy, where 11 towns are now in government lockdown.
While many have decided to stay open, telling pupils they must come in unless they have clear symptoms of the killer virus – a move which has angered some parents.
Public Health England is not advising schools to close and Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs today: 'If anyone has been in contact with a suspected case in a childcare or an educational setting, no special measures are required while test results are awaited.
'There is no need to close the school or send other students or staff home. Once the results arrive, those who test negative will be advised individually about returning to education.
'In most cases, closure of the childcare or education setting will be unnecessary, but this will be a local decision based on various factors including professional advice.
'Our goal here is to try to keep schools open wherever we can so long as that protects the public. In fact, our wider goal is to have the minimum disruption, social and economic and indeed to the NHS subject to keeping the public safe.'
However, England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has admitted that closures are a future possibility if the coronavirus takes hold in the UK.
Some schools also reported that they closed immediately for a deep clean following Department of Health and PHE advice.
Contradictory messages from the government have led to widespread confusion and caused individual headteachers to take matters into their own hands.
At least 13 schools have closed and 20 have sent pupils and staff home for health and safety reasons after pupils went on trips to the Alps
Cransley School, a private school in Northwich, Cheshire (pictured) announced it will be closed for the rest of the week because of coronavirus fears. It will also undergo a deep clean, in a precautionary move to prevent any cases
Italy saw a devastating surge in coronavirus cases over the weekend, with confirmed infections rocketing from just six on Friday to more than 322 today, and 11 people have died
Closing schools would force millions of parents to stay at home, including essential health workers such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
Professor Whitty said: 'There's no secret there's a variety of things you need to look at, you look at things like school closures, you look at things like reducing transport.'
It is not clear, however, how effective closing schools would be at stopping the virus.
Children seem to be relatively unaffected by COVID-19 in China, where the outbreak is worst, and this week a 17-day-old baby became the youngest patient to fully recover from the illness – without medication.
Professor Azra Ghani, from Imperial College London, said: 'One critical piece of information that would inform a more general decision around school closure is the extent to which children contribute to onward transmission.'
He said closing schools is known to slow down the flu because it's an illness which affects children particularly badly and is spread more easily among them.
He added: 'We know that there are relatively few cases of COVID-19 disease in children and teenagers compared to adults.
'This could mean that children remain susceptible but are less likely to develop severe symptoms and hence attend hospital; alternatively, it could indicate that children are less susceptible to infection...
'Any decision to [close schools] would need to take into account the duration that this could be sustained and the subsequent impact both on other aspects of young people's well-being and the wider economy.'
One primary school in Essex is closed as a precaution today because a teacher was in Italy over half term – even though they are not ill.
Eleven schools were shut today and three more closed yesterday taking the total to 14 – and at least 21 more have been sending students and teachers into self-isolation if they came down with flu-like symptoms or chesty coughs.
But a school in Swansea is ignoring pleas from parents to shut down after a class returned from a ski trip to Italy with pupils told that they still have to come in unless they have the flu.
Secondary school Cleeve Park, in Sidcup, south-east London also remained open today despite some of its pupils and staff reporting 'feeling unwell' after returning from a school ski trip to Bormio, in northern Italy on Saturday.
The school has announced today that it has advised an unspecified number of pupils and staff to isolate themselves at home, but allowed others from the trip attend.
It said it decided not to close after following advice from Public Health England that the school should remain open and all students should attend if they are well.
However, some parents are against the headmaster's decision.
One father has chosen to keep his son at home until results come back negative.
Headteachers have the final say on when schools close for health and safety reasons such as illnesses or bad weather.
The latest to shut their doors are Lime Academy Watergall in Bretton, Peterborough and Shepeau Stow Primary in Spalding.
Lutton St Nicholas and Gedney Church End primary schools in Lincolnshire also closed 'because of a potential connection to the Coronavirus by an individual within the school'.
St Christopher's C of E High School in Accrington told parents it had to shut.
A member of staff at William Martin Junior and Infant School came back from a half-term holiday in Italy so is shut as a precaution today.
Trinity Catholic College in Middlesbrough and Cransley School in Northwich, Cheshire, shut completely on Tuesday so they can be deep cleaned. The Brine Leas Academy, also in Cheshire, shut its sixth form yesterday.
St Peter's Church of England Middle School in Windsor closed today for a 'precautionary clean' after a pupil returned home from a trip to Italy during half-term.
Archbishop Temple School in Preston closed and said in a notice on its website that it had an 'unavoidable closure' because a ski trip had recently returned from Pila, Italy.
Burford School in Oxfordshire has been closed until Monday for a 'deep clean', the Oxford Mail reports, after a pupil had become unwell after travelling to Italy in half term.
And pupils and staff at 18 schools in Cornwall, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Berkshire, Pembrokeshire, Liverpool, London, Birmingham and Northern Ireland were sent home to quarantine themselves.
Professor Paul Cosford, medical director for Public Health England, today admitted the Government does not know how many Brits have come back from skiing trips to the north of Italy but said it was a 'significant number'.
Worldwide, more than 80,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus and more than 2,700 have died
Official advice was changed on Tuesday to say that people should self-isolate at home if they have travelled home from one of 11 quarantined towns in the Lombardy and Veneto regions, or if they feel ill after visiting north of Pisa.
But health bosses triggered confusion yesterday about whether it was safe to travel in future. When asked if he would go to northern Italy, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said 'I'm not planning on going, put it that way' in an interview.
However, PHE's Professor Cosford, said it would be 'unreasonable' to advise people not to travel to Italy, and the Foreign Office does not warn against any other parts of the country.
It comes after a 'worst case' Government report predicted 80 per cent of Britons could catch the virus and 500,000 may die.
Italy is struggling to contain the spread of coronavirus with 11 dead and 322 confirmed sick - and dozens of UK schools have returned from the country's Alpine ski resorts in the past week.
Authorities in Italy reported on Tuesday night that the number of people infected in the country grew to 322, or 45 per cent in 24 hours, and deaths of patients with the virus rose to 11.
Austria, Croatia and Switzerland reported their first cases, while Spain and France recorded new ones, also involving people who had been to northern Italy.
The first positive test in South America has been recorded after 61-year-old Brazilian man who had recently been to northern Italy tested positive, it has been reported.
Meanwhile, Public Health England announced that flu patients will now be assessed for coronavirus to see if it is spreading - even if they have not visited a hotspot country.
But it has confirmed it is not advising that schools shut in an attempt to stem the spread of coronavirus - unless they have been to one of the specific towns that are identified by the Italian government.
The organisation's medical director Paul Cosford told Radio 4's Today programme: 'Schools have to take difficult decisions given the complexity of issues that they are facing.
'What I would say is that our general advice is not to close schools.
'What we are clear about is if you have been in the area of northern Italy of concern and you have symptoms - it is a cough, shortness of breath or fever - then you do need to self-isolate, you need to phone NHS 111 and await advice for further assessment or testing.
'Of course if you've been to one of the specific towns that are identified by the Italian government and essentially closed down, then our advice and requirement is to self-isolate anyway.'
He said Public Health England was available to talk to schools about their 'specific circumstances' and 'help them make the right decisions for them'.
Mr Hancock said official advice has been changed to say people who have been to anywhere in Italy north of Pisa should self-isolate if they develop flu-like symptoms on their return to the UK.
On Tuesday, Cransley School in Northwich, Cheshire, and Trinity Catholic College in Middlesbrough announced they would be closed for the rest of the week.
Both schools said that this was to allow for a 'deep clean' after pupils and teachers had returned from ski trips in northern Italy.
Trinity Catholic College said that a 'small number of staff and pupils' had started showing mild flu-like symptoms following a ski trip.
Meanwhile, Sandbach High School in Cheshire said students and staff who visited Aprica, in Italy's Lombardy region, were to stay indoors and self-isolate.
A third Cheshire school, Brine Leas School in Nantwich, said its sixth form was closed due to staff shortages following Government advice regarding travel to Italy.
Students from Penair School in Truro, Cornwall, Salendine Nook High School in Huddersfield, Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School in West Derby and Newquay Tretherras in Newquay, have also been advised to stay home after returning from ski trips.
Britons who have been in locked-down regions of Italy - including Lombardy and Veneto - were told they should self-isolate at home for 14 days even if they have no symptoms.
The Foreign Office later updated its travel advice, with a spokesman saying: 'We advise against all but essential travel to 10 small towns in Lombardy and one in Veneto, which are currently in isolation due to an ongoing outbreak of coronavirus.
'Any British nationals already in these towns should follow the advice of the local authorities.'
Three pupils at Torquay Boys' Grammar School in Devon (left) tested negative for the virus after being sent home feeling ill after a school trip to Italy, and Cambridge House Grammar School (right) in County Atrim, Northern Ireland, sent home around 50 staff and pupils
Trinity Catholic College in Middlesbrough has closed for the week after pupils returned from a skiing trip to northern Italy. Initially it had sent 36 pupils home but has now closed completely for a deep clean
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