London, UK: England has followed Scotland and made coronavirus a “notifiable disease”.
It means that medical staff must alert health boards if they suspect a patient is infected but crucially, for business, it allows companies to claim on insurance policies.
Britain will formally register Covid-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, as “notifiable”, the BBC reported today.
“To mitigate the impact on businesses, we will register Covid-19 as a notifiable disease,” the BBC quoted a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care as saying.
“This will help companies seek compensation through their insurance policies in the event of any cancellations they may have to make as a result of the spread of the virus.”
The virus became a notifiable disease in the Republic of Ireland on Thursday. The Department of Health is also understood to be looking at bringing the condition under legislation that would allow for a person with the virus to be detained and isolated. The HSE said on Thursday that there was no confirmed case of the virus in Ireland at present. Some 78 people had been tested to date (Monday).
