THE UK will not have access to the EU’s pandemic early warning system in the wake of the global spread of coronavirus because Downing Street does not want to cross any Brexit red lines, it has been revealed.
The UK has now had 36 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including one in Scotland, and further cases are expected.
However, despite the Department of Health wanting to continue membership of the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) as part of the UK’s post-Brexit EU trade deal, Downing Street has ruled this out – warning it did not want to blur the UK’s current set of requests.
The Department of Health warned Number 10 that leaving the EWRS – which has helped in the fight against coronavirus and previous outbreaks like bird flu, SARS and Ebola – could put public health at risk.
But Downing Street’s negotiating team said add-on requests to the Canada-style agreement they are seeking could risk the UK’s leverage in discussions.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Scotland braced for ‘significant’ coronavirus outbreak
The UK’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock has also been prevented from meeting with other EU health ministers amid the coronavirus outbreak, it has been reported.
Elsewhere, a team of experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) landed in Tehran yesterday to support the response to the coronavirus outbreak in Iran.
They will work with health authorities and other stakeholders to review ongoing readiness and response efforts. To date, 1501 Covid-19 cases, including 66 deaths, have been reported in Iran.
Cases with a travel history to the country have also been reported from Afghanistan, Canada, Lebanon, Pakistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Iranian state radio said a member of the council that advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also died after falling ill from the virus.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: First case of covid-19 confirmed in Scotland
In South Korea, the outbreak has surged and millions of children in Japan have stayed home from school as officials wrestled with the epidemic in more than 60 countries.
377 cases were from the city of Daegu, home to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, to which most of South Korea’s cases have been traced after some members visited Wuhan.
The Seoul government asked prosecutors to launch a murder investigation into leaders of the church, a movement led by founder Lee Man-hee.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said that if Lee and other heads of the church had cooperated, measures could have stopped fatalities.
China, where the outbreak started in December, reported 202 new cases over the previous 24 hours, with another 42 deaths, bringing its total number of cases to 80,026, with 2912 deaths recorded.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: What we know about Scotland's first confirmed case
Yesterday’s increase was the country’s lowest since January 21, but it still has around three-quarters of the nearly 89,000 cases worldwide.
The US logged 80 cases and two deaths, both men with existing health problems who had been in hospital in Washington state.
Its total included evacuees from a virus-stricken cruise ship and from Wuhan, but new cases among California health workers in New York, Rhode Island and Washington raised concerns on both US coasts.
The second US fatality was a man in his 70s from a nursing facility near Seattle where dozens of sick people were tested for the virus. Researchers had said the virus may have been circulating in Washington state for weeks undetected.
Indonesia confirmed its first cases yesterday, in two people who contracted the illness from a foreign traveller.
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