Four new cases of coronavirus detected in UK

LONDON (AA) - Four more people in the U.K. have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, bringing the total to 40, the country’s chief medical officer said Monday, noting all four had recently come from Italy.

“If we do get widespread transmission in the U.K., the most important thing for us now is to make sure we’re prepared in every possible way to slow the spread of infection so the intensity reduces and we’re able to deal with the consequences. We’re not there yet, but we’ve got to be prepared for it,” said Paul Cosford, medical director of Public Health England.

Cosford said preventing the spread of the infection relied among other things on basic personal hygiene such as properly washing hands.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier that the government had “agreed a plan so that if and when it starts to spread, as I’m afraid it looks likely it will, we are in a position to take the steps necessary to contain the spread of the disease as far as we can and to protect the most vulnerable.”

He was speaking after convening Cobra, the British government’s emergency committee.

Over the weekend, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC that “under the worst-case scenario, we would have to take some quite significant actions that would have social and economic disruption. It may be necessary to close some schools and other population distancing measures.”

These “population distancing measures” could include shutting down towns like in Italy or banning large gatherings like in France.

The global death toll from the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has reached at least 2,900, with more than 88,000 infected.

The World Health Organization, which already declared the outbreak an international health emergency, has updated the global risk level to ‘very high.’