This is the coronavirus super-spreader Steve Walsh, who inadvertently infected 11 people with the disease on a ski break in the Alps
The Brighton coronavirus ‘super-spreader’ is a 53-year-old scout leader and family man who is feared to have infected at least 11 people in a fortnight before showing any symptoms – but he has already beaten the deadly virus, MailOnline can exclusively reveal today.
Father-of-two Steve Walsh is in quarantine in a London hospital today after picking up the disease at a Singapore conference at the end of last month and coming home to Hove via a skiiing holiday in the Alps.
Mr Walsh, who is assistant cub scout leader at the 3rd Hove St Leonards Scout Group where the children know him as Shere Khan, has inadvertently put Brighton at the centre of Britain’s coronavirus crisis.
It is feared Mr Walsh, who is in an isolation unit, came into contact with hundreds of people on his return to Britain – but he has beaten the illness, he said today.
Speaking from hospital, he said in a statement: ‘I would like to thank the NHS for their help and care – whilst I have fully recovered, my thoughts are with others who have contracted coronavirus.
‘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.
‘I was advised to attend an isolated room at hospital, despite showing no symptoms, and subsequently self-isolated at home as instructed.
‘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.
‘I also thank friends, family and colleagues for their support during recent weeks and I ask the media to respect our privacy’.
He lives with his wife Catherine and contracted the virus during a conference at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore organised by Servomex, a British gas analytics company he works for, more than two weeks ago.
He then travelled to Les Contamines-Montjoie, near Megeve, for a ski break to stay with friends Bob and Catriona Saynor, who own the chalet where 11 people were exposed to the virus. They are both believed to have coronavirus and so has their nine-year-old son.
Mr Walsh then flew from Geneva to London on an easyJet plane with 100-plus passengers and crew before going to his local pub, The Brigadier in Hove, and a group yoga session in a church hall before reportedly walking into Brighton hospital’s A&E with flu symptoms and being rushed into quarantine in London last week.
A Servomex spokesman said: ‘We are very pleased that Steve Walsh has made a full recovery. We continue to provide support to him and his family. We are working with Public Health authorities to ensure the welfare of our staff and communities and wish anyone with the virus a quick and full recovery’.
Six of the infected Britons who cam into contact with him are being treated in France and Spain, but the other five, including the GPs, returned to the Brighton area. Two health centres, a care home and a school have all been closed amid fears they could be contaminated.
Public health officials are urgently tracing patients who might have been infected – but have been accused of ‘losing control’ and keeping ‘secrets’ from the public.
Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said: ‘Patient confidentiality is important but we may now be at the point where the public’s need to know more information is greater.
‘It would be helpful to know if he got a taxi straight home or got a bus and stopped off at the supermarket. Letting the public know this timeline will reassure many that they are not at risk.’
Workers in protective suits inside of the County Oak Medical Centre in Brighton on Monday after a GP at the practice was diagnosed with the deadly virus
The Grenadier pub in Hove, where the super spreader went for a drink after returning from Singapore with the virus. Staff who were on shift that night have been told to self-isolate
Patcham Nursing Home in the north of the city has closed its doors to visitors amid fears a GP with coronavirus visited one of its 24 elderly residents last week
Brighton GP surgery the County Oak Medical Centre has been closed for ‘urgent operational health and safety reasons’ after a member of staff tested positive for the killer coronavirus
A care home is the latest health facility to be shut down in Brighton amid fears a GP with coronavirus visited one of its 24 elderly residents last week with the seaside resort’s residents gripped by fear.
Patcham Nursing Home in the north of the city has closed its doors to visitors as a ‘precaution’ after the nearby County Oak Medical Centre was sealed off and cleaned by a team in hazmat suits after a member of medical staff tested positive for the killer virus.
And this morning students at Bevendean Primary School have been told they can stay at home after it was revealed a teacher there is in ‘self-isolation’ over fears they have caught the coronavirus from the city’s super-spreader.
Britain is facing a major coronavirus outbreak and Brighton is at its centre because it is home to the scout leader super-spreader who infected at least 11 people before falling ill himself last week.
A relative of a Patcham resident tried to pop in to the care home yesterday but was told by bosses it was ‘off limits’ and told Brighton and Hove News: ‘They said the reasoning behind the closing was because the doctor, who was tested positive for coronavirus, visited’.
Yesterday it emerged the illness has struck down two GPs – feared to be Catriona Saynor and a doctor friend who was also in the Alps at the end of January.
The Coronavirus is spiralling out of in Brighton and health bosses are intentionally hiding information about the super-spreader, a leading city councillor has said.
Professor Samer Bagaeen, a leading figure on Brighton and Hove City Council’s Health board said Public Health England (PHE), the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Brighton and Hove City Council have lost control of the situation by keeping residents ill-informed.
He said: ‘I think they have not been straight with everyone from the start and have intentionally hid the implications of the infections.
‘We don’t know who in the city has been exposed and where.
‘We should have been informed since day one. You have people who are ‘self isolating’ but could still be going to the shops.
‘And the council has told us councillors that we must not speak to journalists. The problem is that nobody is stepping into a leadership role and everyone is passing the buck.’
Tracking down the patients doctors has been made a priority because the virus is known to be particularly dangerous for those with pre-existing health conditions.
NHS sources stressed a maximum of 15 patients came into contact with them since their return from the French chalet.
The Brighton doctors are among 11 Britons thought to have caught the virus from a ‘super-spreader’, a middle-aged businessman who contracted it in Singapore. He is believed to be a scoutmaster and married father-of-one.
Whitehall sources suggested the cluster of cases meant hundreds of people would now have to be tested for the virus. The news comes as the death toll from the killer disease tops 1,000.
At least one of the infected doctors is thought to have practised at the County Oak Medical Centre on Carden Hill. It was shut down yesterday for a deep clean.
Dr Catriona Saynor (pictured left) quit as a partner in Brighton to live permanently in the French chalet where the British super-spreader visited to ski. She works at County Oak Medical Centreas a locum, according to the medical centre’s website. Her husband Bob and their nine-year-old son are also said to have been confirmed with coronavirus
A source who knows the cub scout leader told the Sun: ‘I know he was in Singapore because I was aware he was attending a conference.
‘After that was done, he went to the chalet in France via Geneva, which is an hour away, and he stayed there for a week.
‘After spending five days at the chalet, he took an easyJet flight home to Gatwick and went back to Brighton.’
A Scout Association spokesman last night could not confirm whether one of its 640,000 members had contracted the virus.
The World Health Organisation expressed its alarm about the situation last night. ‘The detection of this small number of cases could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire,’ said its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He said it was worrying that the illness had been transmitted by people with no travel history to China, where the virus originated.
As the death toll in China passed 1,000 and the Department of Health declared a ‘serious and imminent threat’:
- The Government handed itself new powers to arrest anyone suspected of having coronavirus;
- The number of cases in Britain reached eight, the Brighton cluster and two Chinese nationals infected in York;
- Private schools were advised to tell pupils not to travel to South-East Asia during next week’s half term;
- A student at the University of Sussex in Brighton was admitted to hospital with suspected coronavirus;
- A private school in Southampton was closed for three days after pupils were put into isolation with virus symptoms;
- A Chinese citizen journalist who raised the alarm about coronavirus has been missing since last Thursday;
- UK healthcare workers have now tested 1,100 people for the virus;
- British Airways cancelled all flights to and from China until April.
Until the Country Oak medical centre reopens, the surgery’s 7,600 patients have been told to call NHS 111 if they are unwell or 999 if they have a life-threatening emergency.
A note on the front of the County Oak Medical Centre in Brighton saying the surgery has been closed for ‘operational difficulties’
A GP who has worked at the practice, Catriona Greenwood, owns the French chalet with her husband.
However, there is no official confirmation that she is infected with the virus.
According to Brighton and Hove News she worked an ‘admin’ day at the surgery last week but did not meet any patients.
Public Health England is also trying to trace anyone who came into contact with the other Britons who were infected on the ski holiday.
They have told a dozen people in Brighton to go into quarantine and they are sending them texts every morning asking them to reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if they have symptoms.
Five staff at the Grenadier pub in Hove have been instructed to ‘self-isolate’ after the super-spreader spent two hours there on February 1.
One bar worker was told they needed to be within two metres of an infected person for longer than 20 minutes to have any risk of picking up the infection.
Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director of PHE, said: ‘Two of these new cases are healthcare workers and as soon as they were identified, we advised them to self-isolate in order to keep patient contact to a minimum.
‘We are now working urgently to identify all patients and other healthcare workers who may have come into close contact, and at this stage we believe this to be a relatively small number.’
The fact that this super-spreader passed the disease to 11 Britons –five of whom returned to the UK and may have infected others themselves – has concerned scientists. ‘
Last week Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said patients tended to spread the disease to only two or three people.
Arrowe Park Hospital, the isolation facility in The Wirral, where Britons evacuated from Wuhan in China have been staying
Health chiefs are also under increasing pressure to name a British ‘super spreader’ of the coronavirus, who is thought to have infected at least seven others
It is possible the inhabitants of the chalet were in very close contact and the man may not have had any symptoms.
Andrew Freedman of Cardiff University’s School of Medicine said: ‘It does appear that the index case has passed on the infection to an unusually large number of contacts.
‘As such, he could be termed a super-spreader.
‘This may occur as result of someone being infectious despite having few or no symptoms, meaning they are unaware they have the infection.
‘It can also result from someone coming into close contact with an unusually large number of people or someone carrying a larger than normal quantity of the virus.’
The super-spreader, who lives in Brighton, contracted the virus at a conference at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore organised by Servomex, a British gas analytics company.
He then flew to France and spent four days in a chalet in Les Contamines-Montjoie.
This chalet has been pinpointed as the centre of this outbreak. It is owned by Miss Greenwood, one of the potentially infected GPs, and her husband Bob Saynor, 48, an environmental consultant.
Mr Saynor is being treated for the virus in France with his nine-year-old son and five other Britons.
A British father of two who also stayed at the chalet is in hospital in Majorca.
The 13 Britons to have contracted the virus include Alan Steele who fell ill on his honeymoon aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan.
Two Chinese nationals are being treated in Newcastle after testing positive for the virus in York.
Brighton pharmacists have sold out of hand sanitisers and face masks.