Coronavirus: two patients die in France as four new cases detected in England – live updates - MW
Rory Carroll
Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin, revealed that her children attending Dublin school were closed due to a coronavirus outbreak, reports Rory Carroll, Guardian reporter.
Health authorities ordered secondary schools to be closed on Monday for two weeks after a student returned from Italy was diagnosed with a virus - the first confirmed case was Ireland. All 400 estimated students and staff were advised to stay home and restrict travel.
McDonald tweeted that she was at home and will restrict her meetings this week. Sinn Féin is holding a series of rallies to reinforce the Party's efforts to join a coalition government following the success of the election last month.
Sinn Féin has postponed two public meetings due to be held in Galway & Cavan
Party leader @MaryLouMcDonald confirms her children attend the school which is now closed for 14 days due to #coronavirus
See Darran Marshall's other Tweets
Here is a video of Boris Johnson’s statement following the Cobra meeting earlier
Kim Willsher
It is being reported by the French press that less than a week after the death of a high school professor in the Oise region of northern France, two others died of coronavirus in the same hospital. The newspaper Le Parisien said it had information from three sources.
Philip Hospital at Compiègne suffered two more deaths, according to the last information I had, said Philippe Marini, the mayor of the city.
In Nice, a three-year-old child was hospitalized with the virus.
Kate Proctor
The UK government’s plan to tackle the coronavirus outbreak will be released tomorrow after Boris Johnson chaired his first emergency Cobra meeting, reports the Guardian political correspondent Kate Proctor.
Emergency legislation will also be introduced by the end of the month. This includes suspending rules on classroom sizes to try to keep nurseries and schools open. The prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
One of the purposes of the plan which we will be publishing will be to set out to the public some potential changes in relation to everyday things, action that might need to be taken to deliver that best possible response.
He added:
[The plan] was agreed by all four parts of the United Kingdom and they will be working closely together on ensuring we have the best possible response for dealing with the outbreak.
Significant work has gone on already, you will hopefully have seen the adverts in particular stressing the need for people to wash their hands but there will be further and extensive public information campaigns in the coming days and weeks.
Every Whitehall department in government was represented by a minister or secretary of state, and the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, and Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, the joint first minister of Northern Ireland, were also present via phone-ins or video links. The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, was not invited.
On criticism that the government has been slow to act over the virus, the spokesman said:
I simply don’t accept that. We have been taking extensive steps led by the best medical and scientific advice since the very beginning of this outbreak.
Two patients died in France - Le Parisien
Two patients died of coronavirus in northern France, bringing the number of deaths in the country to four, Le Parisien newspaper said, citing the mayor of Compiègne and other sources. Reuters report:
On the second day, according to the latest information I had, there were two more deaths in Compiegne Hospital, Philip Philip Marini, the mayor of Compiegne, reported by Le Parisien.
As of Sunday, there have been 130 confirmed cases of influenza-like illness in France. The French Ministry of Health did not return calls for comment.
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