Coronavirus: Screening

(asked on 28th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions officials in his Department have had with their counterparts in the Home Department on the (a) identification and (b) segregation of people entering the UK who are at risk of carrying the Coronavirus.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 3rd February 2020

We have been closely monitoring the situation in Wuhan and China more widely. We have put in place proportionate, precautionary measures. Our approach has at all times been guided by the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty. Professor Whitty, Public Health England, aided by independent experts, are in close contact with their international counterparts, and are continually monitoring the scientific evidence as it emerges.

These measures do not include the introduction of ‘medical screening’, such as temperature screening. Expert advice suggests that medical screening would be of very limited effectiveness and detect only a small minority of cases as symptomatic. This is because symptoms do not usually appear until five to seven days, and sometimes up to 14 days, after infection, meaning that only a very small proportion of people would be likely to present symptoms during a flight or immediate arrival to the United Kingdom and therefore be picked up by temperature screening.

Travellers who have arrived from Wuhan within the last 14 days are asked to stay indoors and self-isolate and contact NHS111 for further information – irrespective of whether they show signs of infection – while people in Northern Ireland should phone their general practitioners. Nobody who has returned from the area should leave home until they have received clinical advice that it is safe to do so.

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