Nine schools have been placed on coronavirus infection alert as teachers and pupils are told to quarantine themselves.
Panicked parents pulled kids out of Cottesmore St Mary’s Catholic and Bevendean Primary School in Brighton yesterday morning over fears the deadly disease is spreading.
Steve Walsh, who unknowingly contracted the disease on a business trip in Singapore before going on a ski trip where he is thought to have infected others, is being held in an isolation unit at St Thomas’ hospital in London. He was in the Alps with two GPs who have since tested positive for coronavirus in Brighton.
Two GP practices were closed on Tuesday for cleaning over coronavirus fears, but are now open with some disruption to appointments. A spokesman for NHS Brighton and Hove CCG said all other NHS services in Brighton and Hove were open as usual, with measures in place to protect patients and staff.
Two families with children at Carden primary school in Brighton were told to self-isolate in an email issued by the school on Wednesday morning. The school is situated opposite the County Oak medical centre, which has been closed after a GP working there came into contact with Walsh.
The email from the school stressed that the families had been in contact with a “potential” case of the virus and not yet a diagnosed one.
