A British man who was extradited from Thailand under suspicion of dealing drugs has collapsed in a UK prison and is feared to have contracted the deadly coronavirus, sparking panic in the facility.
Mark Rumble, who faces charges of conspiracy to supply class A drugs after being extradited from Thailand on January 27, collapsed in his cell at Bullingdon prison in Oxfordshire, just days after returning to the United Kingdom.
The alleged drug dealer and his cellmate were rushed to a nearby hospital to be tested for the coronavirus. HMP Bullingdon fell into “panic” as hundreds of prisoners have been confined to their cells and an entire wing of the prison was cordoned off.
“The jail’s been in panic mode since the first person collapsed”, a source inside the prison told The Sun.
“Several hundred prisoners on C-wing are in lockdown and unable to leave their cells. A prison is just about the worst place for any outbreak because everyone is in such close quarters”, the source added.
Thailand has had 33 confirmed cases of the virus, however, the country has not restricted travel from China where the outbreak of deadly virus first occurred.
An official in Thailand’s Department of Corrections said that Mr Rumble was tested before he was extradited to the UK, telling the Standard: “We already checked his medical condition and he was fine.”
UK Declares Coronavirus ‘Serious and Imminent Threat’, Activates Emergency Powers https://t.co/oCYKds4kRB
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 10, 2020
The death toll of the virus, which has officially been dubbed Covid-19 by the World Health Organization, has reached 1,016 and there are 42,200 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in China, according to the BBC.
So far 1,358 people in the United Kingdom have been tested for the coronavirus, however, only eight have been confirmed to have contracted the virus.
Over the weekend, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Peter Piot, warned that the United Kingdom is facing a “major outbreak” of the coronavirus.
“In today’s world, no epidemic remains just a local affair. What happens thousands and thousands of miles from here in China has the potential of causing a major outbreak here”, warned the professor.
“We now advise British nationals in China to leave the country if they can, to minimise their risk of exposure to the virus.” https://t.co/Jrs3xGCdcf
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 4, 2020
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