Daily Mail - 05.03.2020

Page ^ Daily Mail, Thursday, March 5, 2020

virus panic spreads

Sony and

Nike send

staff home

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Universities

braced for

exam crisis

NIKE and Sony are the latest
big firms to evacuate offices in
a bid to prevent an outbreak of
coronavirus among staff.
Sony Pictures Entertainment
said it has closed its base in
Soho, London for the week.
It told staff someone at the
firm may have been exposed to
Covid-19 on a recent trip.
In a memo to employees it
said: ‘The health and well-being
of our employees is of the
utmost importance’.
Nike also shut down its head-
quarters in the same area,
where 150 staff work, while the
offices are deep cleaned.
It comes after accountants
Deloitte shut an office in the
City of London over the bug.
City – Page 81

UNIVERSITIES are drawing up

coronavirus plans, including

lowering grade requirements

for affected A-level pupils.

Admissions body UCAS is also

considering pushing back dead-

lines for university applications

if exams have to be delayed.

UCAS said: ‘Extensions [to

the August 31 application dead-

line] will be considered.’

It also said universities would

b e e x p e c t e d t o t a k e i n t o

account school closures when

looking at applicants’ grades.

It came as Goldsmiths, Uni-

versity of London, put one of its

halls on alert after a visitor

caught the disease. A student is

self-isolating in the south Lon-

don halls after hosting the

guest, thought to be from Italy.

HealtH Secretary Matt Han-

cock has held talks with social

media firms to stop fake news

spreading about the corona-

virus, it emerged on tuesday.

O n M o n d ay t h e P r i m e

Minister warned tech giants

in particular needed to be

‘responsible’ to prevent con-

spiracy theories fuelling pub-

lic panic about the infection.

Boris Johnson said it is vital

everyone works together to

‘convey the right messages’.

It is understood Mr Hancock

then had a ‘positive meeting’

with social media firms, such

as Facebook and twitter, on

Monday evening.

Sick pay shake-up for sufferers

it’s called a ‘hot toddy’.

Day 4: I slept like a baby last

night. Chinese whisky is evidently a

cure for all known ailments. I have

another hot toddy in the evening.

Day 5: I’m over my cold. It really

wasn’t anything.

Day 7: I spoke too soon. I feel

dreadful. This is no longer just a cold.

I ache all over, my head is thumping,

my eyes are burning, my throat is

constricted. The cold has travelled

down to my chest and I have a

hacking cough.

This is flu, and it’s going to take

more than a mug of hot honey, with or

without the magic whisky ingredient,

to make me feel better.

The symptoms hit me this afternoon

like a train and, unless there’s an over-

night miracle, I will not be going to

work tomorrow. It’s not just that I feel

so ill — I really don’t want to give this

flu to any of my colleagues.

Day 8: I won’t be in work today.

I’ve warned them I’ll probably be off

all week. Even my bones are aching.

It’s hard to imagine I’m going to get

over this soon.

Even getting out of bed hurts. I am

propped up on pillows, watching TV

and trying not to cough too much

because it is painful.

Day 9: Even the kitten hanging

around my apartment seems to be

feeling under the weather. It isn’t its

usual lively self, and when I put down

food it doesn’t want to eat. I don’t

blame it – I’ve lost my appetite, too.

Day 10: I’m still running a

t e m p e r a t u r e. I ’ v e f i n i s h e d t h e

quarter-bottle of whisky, and I don’t

feel well enough to go out and

get any more. It doesn’t matter: I

don’t think hot toddies were making

much difference.

Day 11: Suddenly, I’m feeling

better, physically at least. The flu has

lifted. But the poor kitten has died. I

don’t know whether it had what I’ve

got, or whether cats can even get

human flu. I feel miserable.

Day 12: I’ve had a relapse. Just

as I thought the flu was getting better,

it has come back with a vengeance.

My breathing is laboured. Just getting

up and going to the bathroom leaves

me panting and exhausted. I’m sweat-

ing, burning up, dizzy and shivering.

The television is on but I can’t make

sense of it. This is a nightmare.

By the afternoon, I feel like I am

suffocating. I have never been this ill

in my life. I can’t take more than sips

of air and, when I breathe out, my

lungs sound like a paper bag being

crumpled up. This isn’t right. I need to

see a doctor. But if I call the emergency

services, I’ll have to pay for the

ambulance call-out myself. That’s

going to cost a fortune. I’m ill, but I

don’t think I’m dying — am I?

Surely I can survive a taxi journey. I

decide to go to Zhongnan University

Hospital because there are plenty of

foreign doctors there, studying. It isn’t

rational but, in my feverish state, I

want to see a British doctor. My

Mandarin is pretty good, so I have no

language problem when I call the taxi.

It’s a 20-minute ride. As soon as I get

there, a doctor diagnoses pneumonia.

So that’s why my lungs are making

that noise. I am sent for a battery of

tests lasting six hours.

Day 13: I arrived back at my

apartment late last night. The doctor

prescribed antibiotics for the pneu-

monia, but I’m reluctant to take them

— I’m worried that my body will

become resistant to the drugs and, if I

ever get really ill and need them, they

won’t work. I prefer to beat this with

traditional remedies if I can.

It helps, simply knowing that this is

pneumonia. I’m only 25 and generally

healthy: I tell myself there’s no reason

for alarm. I have some Tiger Balm. It’s

like Vicks vapour rub on steroids. I

pour some into a bowl of hot water

and sit with a towel over my head,

inhaling the fumes. I’m going ‘old

s c h o o l ’. A n d I ’ v e s t i l l g o t t h e

antibiotics in reserve if I need them.

Day 14: Boil a kettle. Add Tiger

Balm. Towel over head. Breathe for an

hour. Repeat.

Day 15: All the days are now

blurring into one.

Day 16: I phone my mother in

Australia. There was no point in

calling her before now — she’d only

worry and try to jump on a plane. That

wouldn’t work: it takes an age to get a

visitor’s visa to China. I’m glad to hear

her voice, even if I can’t do much more

than croak: ‘Mum, I feel so ill.’

Day 17: I am feeling slightly

better, but I don’t want to get my

hopes up yet. I’ve been here before.

D a y 1 8 : M y l u n g s n o

Day 1 — Monday November 25: I have a cold. I’m

sneezing and my eyes are a bit bleary, but it isn’t bad enough to keep me

off work. I arrived in this country to teach English as a foreign language —

but now I’m a manager at a school in Wuhan, the city in central China

where I have lived for the past seven months.

I speak Mandarin well, and the job is interesting. My cold shouldn’t be

very contagious, so I have no qualms about going to work. And I live alone,

so I’m not likely to give it to anyone. There hasn’t been anything in the

news here about viruses. I have no cause for concern. It’s just a sniffle.

Day 2: I have a sore throat. Remembering what my mum used to do

when I was a child, I mix myself a mug of honey in hot water. It does

the trick.

Day 3: I don’t smoke and I hardly ever drink. But it’s important to me

to get over this cold quickly, so that I can stay healthy for work. For

medicinal purposes only, I put a splash of whisky in my honey drink. I think

‘Getting out of bed

hurts and it’s so

painful to cough’

Don’t worry, Charles,

I’m just self-isolating

WORKERS who self-isolate will be entitled

to their £94.25-a-week statutory sick pay

from their first day at home instead of hav-

ing to wait four days.

Ministers removed the waiting time so that

those with symptoms are not under financial

pressure to go into work.

Speaking at Prime Ministers Questions, Boris

Johnson said individuals who self-isolate are

‘helping to protect all of us by slowing the spread

of the virus’.

‘Nobody should be penalised for doing the

right thing,’ he said. Labour leader Jeremy Cor-

byn welcomed the announcement but pressed

the PM on whether it would apply to workers

not entitled to statutory sick pay. He said they

should not have to make the ‘terrible choice

between health and hardship’.

According to think tank the Resolution Foun-

dation, around two million employees do not

earn the £118-a-week to qualify for payments,

while an estimated five million self-employed

workers are also ineligible.

Mr Johnson replied that he was ‘very much

aware’ of issues faced by the self-employed and

those on zero-hours contracts.

The TUC – which had called for prompter pay-

ments – welcomed the P rime Minister’s

announcement as an ‘important step forward’

but warned ‘it’s not enough’.

Hancock’s

fake news

ultimatum

by Connor

Reed

‘I’m sent for a

battery of tests

lasting six hours’

taKING cover in an old one-

man air raid shelter, it was dif-

ficult for Camilla to resist mak-

ing a coronavirus quip.

With Charles looking on and

smiling, the Duchess of Corn-

wall joked at the london

transport Museum: ‘I’m self-

isolating.’ She and the prince

were visiting the museum yes-

terday to mark 20 years of

transport for london (tfl).

the duchess wore gloves but

Charles did not, and the cou-

ple shook hands with some of

those they met. the pair had

enjoyed a ride to the museum

on an electric bus, boarding

the red double-decker at a

bus stop outside Clarence

House built for the occasion.

they were joined by tfl staff

and school pupils on the ten-

minute trip to Covent Garden.

CONNOr reeD, a 25-year-old expat from llandudno

in North Wales, has worked in a school in Wuhan,

China, for almost a year. In November, he became

the first Briton to catch the coronavirus. From

coughs and aches to burning up and spending an

evening in hospital, here’s how he beat the illness

that is sweeping the globe.