Coronavirus News

In the public mind, the origin story of coronavirus seems well fixed: in late 2019 someone at the now world-famous Huanan seafood market in Wuhan was infected with a virus from an animal.

The rest is part of an awful history still in the making, with Covid-19 spreading from that first cluster in China’s Hubei province to a pandemic that has killed about 211,000 people so far. What started as an epidemic mainly limited to China has now become a truly global pandemic. There have now been over 3,508,566 confirmed cases

In the UK, there have been 186,599 confirmed cases and 28,446 deaths as of May 2. The true number of infections and deaths is likely to be considerably higher. On March 23, prime minister Boris Johnson put the UK under lockdown saying that police will now have the power to fine people who gather in groups of more than two or who are outside for non-essential reasons. People with the main coronavirus symptoms – a fever or dry cough – are required to stay at home for seven days while households in which at least one person is displaying symptoms should quarantine themselves for 14 days.