LONDON: A British businessman who became known as a “super-spreader” of the COVID-19 coronavirus said Tuesday he had fully recovered but remained in isolation in a central London hospital.
Steve Walsh issued a statement via his company from Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital after catching the virus on a business trip in Singapore.
He is believed to have infected at least 11 other Britons — five in a ski chalet in the French Alps and another five who have since returned to his home city of Brighton on England’s southeast coast.
Another person was diagnosed while on vacation in Spain.
Walsh said he contacted Britain’s state-run national health service once he realized he might be sick.
“As soon as I knew I had been exposed to a confirmed case of coronavirus, I contacted my GP, NHS 111 and Public Health England,” the 53-year-old said.
“I was advised to attend an isolated room at hospital, despite showing no symptoms, and subsequently self-isolated at home as instructed,” he added.
“When the diagnosis was confirmed I was sent to an isolation unit in hospital, where I remain, and, as a precaution, my family was also asked to isolate themselves.”
Walsh represented his Servomex natural gas analytics company at the Grand Hyatt Singapore sales conference on January 20-22.
A firm that conducts Servomex’s consulting work described Steve as a genial boyscout leader who has two children and travels abroad frequently for work.
Servomex is a division of the London Stock Exchange-listed Spectris high-tech instruments and software provider.
UK health authorities have so far tested 1,358 people and recorded eight cases inside the country.
The media’s focus on the “super-spreader” from Brighton intensified after one of the medical centers in the coastal city temporarily closed because two of its staff also became infected.
A second branch of the same medical center suspended operations on Tuesday.
Walsh traveled to the French Alps before returning to London from Geneva on an EasyJet flight carrying more than 100 people.
His associates said Walsh went to his local pub in Brighton and attended a group yoga session at his church after returning from his trip.
He put himself in “self-isolation” after one of his colleagues abroad fell ill.
A Servomex spokesman said the company remained opened and was working with “authorities to ensure the welfare of our staff.”
Health officials in Brighton are currently trying to trace patients of the two health care workers diagnosed with the virus strain.
UK health authorities have tried hard to calm any fears sparked by a barrage of media stories about a “super-spreader” infecting the public without anyone’s knowledge.
“Contact tracing of the first four cases has been undertaken rapidly and is now complete while tracing for the latest four cases is ongoing,” health minister Matt Hancock told parliament.
Hancock revealed that UK health authorities’ work helped to find the five Britons who are still isolated in France.
“They are now receiving treatment and the Foreign Office is following up with consular support,” Hancock said.
But some medical researchers said Walsh’s case pointed to a bigger problem: the possibility that the virus can spread from someone who exhibits no symptoms.
The episode “may support that the virus can be shed from individuals prior to the onset of symptoms, which we are hearing more and more anecdotally,” said University of Leeds virus researcher Stephen Griffin.
“This would make the problem of containing spread more like controlling a flu outbreak rather than what was experienced with SARS,” Griffin said.
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was another coronavirus that originated in China and killed 774 worldwide in 2002-03.
UK virus ‘super-spreader’ says he has recovered
https://arab.news/8xrr5
UK virus ‘super-spreader’ says he has recovered
- Steve Walsh said he contacted Britain’s state-run national health service once he realized he might be sick
Parts of India boil as temperatures near 50 C
- Delhi and neighboring states are on ‘red alert’ over increasing heat
- Doctors observe a 30 percent jump in heat-related cases in Rajasthan
NEW DELHI: Parts of India continued to reel under a prolonged extreme heat spell on Friday, with temperatures in northern regions expected to soar to nearly 50 degrees Celsius over the weekend.
India’s summer temperatures often peak in May, but heatwave days have been more severe than usual this year.
The Delhi capital region and the nearby states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh have been under the India Meteorological Department’s “red alert” — its highest warning — since Wednesday.
Temperatures soared beyond 45 C in many of the regions and touched 48.8 C in Rajasthan’s Barmer city on Thursday — the highest temperature recorded in the country this year so far, which was forecast to increase even further in the coming days.
“The situation has been grim. There is a heatwave in large parts, and it is severe in some pockets in Rajasthan and parts of Punjab and Haryana, and (it’s) likely to continue till the month’s end,” G.P. Sharma, chief forecaster at Skymet, India’s leading weather and agriculture risk consultancy, told Arab News.
“There is going to be no letup in western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and Gujarat … They will have extreme temperatures, reaching about 49 degrees.”
IMD data showed that temperatures in Rajasthan may cross 49.6 C on Sunday.
Devi Singh, a tourism professional working in the state said one had to “feel it to believe” that it could be this hot.
“The heat is too much and people are really suffering,” she told Arab News. “Life has almost come to a standstill. Business has suffered. Very few tourists are coming. In this heat, people don’t want to venture out.”
Not venturing out is also what doctors advise their patients as they observe a rise in heat-related cases.
“We advise them not to leave home after 10 a.m. in the morning, and leave home only after 5 p.m. Even if you have to step out during the daytime, hydrate yourself properly … Consult doctors immediately if you have any symptoms,” said Dr. Vikas Chowdhury from the Thar Hospital in Barmer city.
“There has been an increase of at least 30 percent in patients with heatwave conditions like dryness of throat, dehydration, vomiting, decrease in appetite, a burning sensation and fever.”
Many Indians, however, have to be outside for work.
“I’ve been feeling dizzy because of the heat,” said Shivam Kumar, a cameraman in Delhi, as he prepared to cover the fifth phase of the ongoing general election, which will be held in the capital on Saturday.
“I have to work anyway because inflation is so high. I have to work to survive, as there is so much unemployment.”
American soldier arrested in Russia over an alleged theft will remain in custody, state media report
American soldier arrested in Russia over an alleged theft will remain in custody, state media report
- The soldier, identified by court officials as Gordon Black, will remain in custody at least until July 2
- Officials said that Black, who is married, traveled to Russia to see a longtime girlfriend
MOSOCW: An American soldier arrested in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok on charges of stealing lost an appeal against his detention and will remain in custody, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported Friday, citing court officials.
The soldier, identified by court officials as Gordon Black, will remain in custody at least until July 2, the report said, after the Primorsky Regional Court upheld the lower court’s ruling to place Black in custody pending investigation and trial.
Several US officials said earlier this month that Black, a 34-year-old staff sergeant, was stationed in South Korea and was in the process of returning home to Fort Cavazos in Texas. Instead, officials said that Black, who is married, traveled to Russia to see a longtime girlfriend. He was detained in Vladivostok, a major military and commercial Pacific port in Russia’s Far East, and accused of stealing from her.
RIA Novosti said, citing local police, that Black has admitted guilt and is cooperating with investigators.
Black’s arrest further complicates US relations with Russia, which have grown increasingly tense as the war in Ukraine drags on.
Russia is known to be holding a number of Americans in its jails, including corporate security executive Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. The US government has designated both as wrongfully detained and has been trying to negotiate for their release.
Others detained include Travis Leake, a musician who had been living in Russia for years and was arrested last year on drug-related charges; Marc Fogel, a teacher in Moscow, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, also on drug charges; and dual nationals Alsu Kurmasheva and Ksenia Khavana.
Zelensky visits Kharkiv in show of support for city pounded by Russian strikes
- The Ukrainian leader met senior military leaders in the city and traveled to the site of a major printing house a day after it was destroyed
- “I also received updates on defense operations, particularly in the Vovchansk area, as well as the recovery of damaged energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said on X
KHARKIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv on Friday as it faces intensified Russian air attacks amid an offensive push by Moscow’s forces into the north of the surrounding region.
The Ukrainian leader met senior military leaders in the city and traveled to the site of a major printing house a day after it was destroyed in a Russian missile attack that killed at least seven people.
“Today I am in Kharkiv... I also received updates on defense operations, particularly in the Vovchansk area, as well as the recovery of damaged energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said on X.
Russian forces launched a cross-border assault on May 10, driving toward the border town of Vovchansk on one line of attack and pushing toward the village of Lyptsi on the other.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top commander, said on Thursday that Russian forces were locked in street fighting in Vovchansk and that they had moved onto a defensive footing near Lyptsi.
Russia says it wants to set up a “buffer” zone in the region in what it calls a response to Kyiv’s shelling of Russian border regions such as Belgorod. Russia frequently launches air strikes on Ukraine from the region of Belgorod.
The assault opened a new front in the war in what Kyiv said was an effort to divert its outnumbered troops from the east where the fiercest fighting is taking place.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city which lies some 30 km from the border with Russia, and the surrounding region have faced daily missile, drone and guided bomb strikes for months.
Most of the energy infrastructure has been severely damaged in the city, which is still home to around 1.3 million people.
“The entire city and region of Kharkiv deserve our support, gratitude, and respect,” Zelensky said.
Sunak urged to ‘safeguard’ UK vote against foreign interference
- Letter highlighted findings from security officials that it was “almost certain” Russian actors sought to interfere in the UK’s 2019 vote
- That interference could include cyberattacks, blackmailing of lawmakers, spreading of disinformation online — including AI “deep fakes”
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “must be prepared for the possibility of foreign interference” in the election campaign ahead of the July 4 vote, parliament’s security committee warned on Friday.
Margaret Beckett, chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS), wrote in a letter to Sunak that there had been a “pattern of attempted foreign interference from countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea” in recent years.
The letter highlighted findings from security officials that it was “almost certain” Russian actors sought to interfere in the UK’s 2019 vote, and that China was seeking to influence democratic processes overseas.
“It is our view that the UK must be prepared for the possibility of foreign interference” during the July 4 general election, it added.
That interference could include cyberattacks, blackmailing of lawmakers, spreading of disinformation online — including AI “deep fakes” — and sowing of division on controversial topics.
The government should help educate the public to identify disinformation and ensure the safety of elected politicians, advised the committee.
Beckett, a former foreign secretary in Tony Blair’s Labour government, urged Sunak “to identify any last actions that can be taken collectively in the national interest” before the current parliament is dissolved next week.
Advancements in AI and the deepening of hostilities between the West and nations such as Russia have led experts to warn of an unprecedented threat ahead of the key elections in the UK and the United States this year.
Home Office urged to be flexible on visa laws after baby born in UK is ordered to leave
- Massah, 13 months old, does not have settled status despite her Jordanian parents living legally in Britain
- ‘The need to maintain the integrity of the immigration laws outweighs the possible effect on you/your children,’ Home Office tells parents
LONDON: The UK Home Office has been urged to look again at how it enforces visa rules after it threatened a 13-month-old with removal from the country to ensure the “integrity” of immigration law, Sky News reported on Friday.
Massah was born to Jordanian parents in the UK who have been living legally in the country since 2021.
However, the family went on holiday in January this year, before Massah’s status in the UK was confirmed, meaning the child technically reentered the country as a tourist.
Despite applying for a child-dependent visa for the baby girl, her parents were told this month that Massah “will be required to immediately leave the UK.” She will then need to have her visa reapplied for from overseas.
In a letter to Massah’s parents, the Home Office said: “In the particular circumstances of your case, it has been concluded that the need to maintain the integrity of the immigration laws outweighs the possible effect on you/your children.”
Massah’s father Mohammed said the family fear that if they return with Massah to Jordan to reapply, the application will still be dismissed.
He added that he and Massah’s mother are worried about regional instability, and that the situation is giving them sleepless nights.
“I can’t imagine how I can tell (Massah) the story in the future that the country you (were) born (in) asked you to leave while you (were) a year old,” Mohammed told Sky News.
“I’m trying to fix everything. I don’t need to consider a one-year-old infant as an overstayer here.”
A Home Office spokesperson told Sky News: “All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the immigration rules.
“We are working closely with the parents of this child to ensure they receive the support and direction they require regarding the application.”
The issue of immigration law is set to become a central point of the UK’s general election, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced this week that the country will go to the polls on July 4.
The announcement came the day before figures were released showing that net immigration to the UK had dropped slightly over the previous 12 months.
