England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, has confirmed that the Wuhan coronavirus has spread to Britain, with two people from the same family infected.

“The patients are receiving specialist NHS care, and we are using tried and tested infection control procedures to prevent further spread of the virus,” the top physician reported.

“The NHS is extremely well-prepared and used to managing infections and we are already working rapidly to identify any contacts the patients had, to prevent further spread,” he claimed.

Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow at the University of Southampton, told the Guardian the cases were “unsurprising”.

“Given the spread to other European and North American countries, it was really only a matter of time until the UK ended up with confirmed cases,” he said.

Update on #Coronavirus:@CMO_England statement on two confirmed cases in England. ▶️ https://t.co/lAQUTk8qm4 pic.twitter.com/7p77OihKmv — Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) January 31, 2020

Professor in Medicine Paul Hunter, of the University of East Anglia, agreed the cases were “not surprising” and “almost inevitable”, but noted the paucity of information in the chief medical officer’s statement.

“The chief medical officer’s statement gives no information on where these two members of the same family acquired their infection,” he observed.

“The two cases are members of the same family but no information has been released about whether both cases will have been infected simultaneously or whether one would have passed the infection to the other… With the information available it is not possible to judge what risk if any there may be of spread within the community.”

The British government has suggested its citizens should get out of China before the ruling Communist Partry regime makes it impossible for them to do so, but has still not taken action to stop non-repatriation travel from the virus-stricken country.

Coronavirus: UK Foreign Office Tells Brits in China to Get Out While They Still Can https://t.co/ewO5kpVQNP — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 30, 2020

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