We have engineers who work in bakeries in the UK and I have been asked by a customer what measures we have in place to consider whether we could be at risk of introducing this into their stores and possible contribute to the spread.

Has anyone else been asked this question and if so how did you reply?

Edited by user 12 February 2020 08:50:10(UTC)  | Reason: Spelling

Coronavirus like other cold and flu type viruses is spread by mainly by the person to person route: an infected person sneezes and someone standing near to them, no more than 2 metres (an educated guess) breathes in the aerosol containing the virus and becomes infected. If the virus fails on a surface like a door knob it might remain viable for some time (hours rather than days) and if someone during that time touches the door know and then transfers the virus on their fingers to their face they may become infected.

It’s a virus so it cannot contaminate food like a bacterium can. It does not multiple outside of its host cell. It cannot by the transmitted by oral route. Heating will kill it. Disinfectants will kill it. Hand washing will kill it.

Because it is a new virus there are a lot of unknowns including exactly how long it can remain viable outside of the human host on surfaces, for example. Other questions include: how long does someone remain infectious after exposure, how easy is it to actually develop a full blown illness after exposure and just how easy is person to person transmission?

To be honest I would expect the bakery business to come up with their own protocols for dealing with and to impose them on visitors including your engineers. Your engineers cannot be expected to be infection control experts.

which begs the question why werent the airline staff and bus drivers in isolation? so many holes in the basic control measures at the start.  In america they are self validating themselves, i.e. no i havent been to china, and I feel fine... thats it ! look at chicken pox, you're contagious before you have any outward symptoms.

Chickenpox has an airborne infection route, via coughs and sneezes which means that people infected with it can pass on the infection before the distinctive blisters form. These blisters contain a high titre of the virus and are extremely infectious. It takes 10 to 12 days for the disease to fully develop after initial infection.

From what I can understand, the reasons for the outbreak in China fall into four areas:

1. Wuhan is a big city, similar in size to London

2. It is heavily populated

3. It is thought that the virus initially transferred from animals, and there is a lot of trading in live animals in the city

4. Due to atmospheric pollution, the air quality in Wuhan is poor, and it is debatable as to how much of the illness and death was attributable to this and how much to the virus, or at least a combination of these factors. When people are crammed together in close proximity, and the air quality is poor, the scene is set for infection spread. Aircraft cabins are notorious for this, as so much of the air is re-circulated. If someone on board has a common infectious condition like colds or flu, it is likely that other occupants will be infected.

I would be asking two questions of people entering the country. Have you been in a country where the virus has established itself, and how did you travel here?

“exactly, so if new coronavirus is also airborne, I don’t see how 14 day isolation will help as they could have already passed it onto 100's before they had symptoms” which is why as well isolating suspected cases, PHE try to identify all of their contacts.

I have just been looking at the Statutory Notifications of Infectious Diseases report from PHE (cos I am a virologist by trade). The new coronavirus isn’t a notifiable disease (yet) but it is interesting to look at other diseases. For example there have been 28 cases   of meningitis in the last month. This is potentially a very nasty disease (especially the bacterial form), with a high fatality rate (higher than coronavirus) and it is spread by coughs and sneezes etc.  Don’t hear much mention of this in the news.

I think there is a risk of some mass hysteria about this. I get the impression that for most people, it's not a serious infection, but as with flu, there will be some people more badly affected due to other physical factors (e.g. age, infirmity, compromised immune systems and so on). What is making people jumpy is that there is a lack of knowledge about infectiousness, and there is as yet no vaccine, as I understand they are working on this in the USA.

Interesting post about it being airborne and therefore being in the same room can result in infection. In which case, my previous point about aircraft cabins becomes even more valid, and how would most people travel to and from China?

The current advise from PHE (which should be regarded as definitive as oppose to some of the panic mongering in the media) to keep as usual and just make sure that the normal hygiene measures that you should be support( hand washing, getting rid of tissues from bins regularly etc ) are maintained.