Heathrow hotel block-booked as coronavirus quarantine facility

A Holiday Inn at Heathrow airport has been block-booked to be used as a quarantine facility in anticipation of more potential coronavirus cases arriving in the UK.

The hotel will be used for those considered at risk but with nowhere else to go, the Department of Health confirmed. This includes space for people to self-isolate if they have been advised to, and to be tested for the virus and await results.

Guests booked to stay at the Heathrow Ariel hotel on Bath Road have been transferred to sister hotels.

The move comes as the government considers an evacuation flight to bring home the Britons stuck on the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Japan, where 454 people have now been diagnosed with the disease.

The Foreign Office is in contact with the 74 British nationals on the Diamond Princess ship in Yokohama about the possibility of repatriation flights.

Related: What is coronavirus and what should I do if I have symptoms?

A No 10 spokesperson said: “We sympathise with all those caught up in this extremely difficult situation. The Foreign Office is in contact with all British people on the Diamond Princess, including to establish interest in a possible repatriation flight. We are urgently considering all options to guarantee the health and safety of those on board.”

The government has come under mounting pressure to bring back those stuck on the ship, with other countries organising or having organised flights for their citizens.

The US flew more than 300 American citizens out on Sunday, 14 of whom tested positive for the virus before getting on the plane, but were allowed to travel in isolation from the other passengers. All others will stay in quarantine for 14 days in the US.

What is the virus causing the illness that started Wuhan?

The virus is officially called Sars-CoV-2 and this causes the disease Covid-19. It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.

What other coronaviruses have there been?

New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are other examples – severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals.

What are the symptoms of the coronavirus?

The virus can cause pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.

Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?

China’s national health commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission, and there have been such transmissions elsewhere. As of 12 February there are now 45,182 confirmed cases and 1,115 deaths. There are cases in 28 other countries outside China, with deaths recorded in one case in Hong Kong, and one case in the Philippines. The number of people to have contracted the virus overall could be far higher, as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has doubled from four to eight after four more people in Brighton were diagnosed with the infection over the weekend.

There are nine cases of the virus in the UK. Four were located in Brighton, one in London. At Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside 83 people in quarantine were told they would be allowed to leave on Thursday after they all tested negative. Of the 1,750 tests carried out so far in the UK, more than 99% had been negative.

Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?

We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2%. However, this is likely to be an overestimate since many more people are likely to have been infected by the virus but not suffered severe enough symptoms to attend hospital, and so have not been counted. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.

Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?

Unless you have recently travelled to China or been in contact with someone infected with the virus, then you should treat any cough or cold symptoms as normal. The NHS advises that people should call 111 instead of visiting the GP’s surgery as there is a risk they may infect others.

Is this a pandemic and should we panic?

Health experts are starting to say it could become a pandemic, but right now it falls short of what the WHO would consider to be one. A pandemic, in WHO terms, is “the worldwide spread of a disease”. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in about 25 countries outside China, but by no means in all 195 on the WHO’s list.

There is no need to panic. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, and says there is a “window of opportunity” to halt the spread of the disease. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact.

Sarah Boseley Health editor and Hannah Devlin

Other countries including Canada, Australia, Italy, South Korea and Israel have all made plans to evacuate their citizens from the ship.

In a video uploaded to YouTube, a British passenger, David Abel, said: “It is all getting to us now. It is the not knowing factor that is the real challenge.”

Abel, who is travelling with his wife, Sally, said he had heard reports among passengers that those who had been tested were not notified if their results were negative.

He also said he had heard stories of passengers receiving a knock at their cabin door and being “frogmarched off” without time to pack if they had tested positive for the disease.

“That is frightening,” said Abel, who along with his wife has yet to hear back about his coronavirus test results. “I am going to start packing a bag just in case.”

The couple had previously reached out to the Virgin Atlantic boss, Richard Branson, for help. On Sunday night Branson tweeted: “Virgin Atlantic does not fly to Japan, but we are in discussions with the UK government and seeing if there is anything we can do to help.”

The ship’s two-week quarantine is due to end on Wednesday, although any passengers who shared a cabin with someone who has tested positive face an extra two weeks on the ship.

Citizens from many other countries will undergo further quarantine when they arrive home. It has yet to be confirmed whether UK nationals will face similar measures if they are repatriated.