Exclusive: 'Mink virus' alert as hospitals ordered to keep suspected cases in isolation

Every hospital in the country has been ordered to isolate suspected "mink virus" patients amid increasing efforts to prevent a mutant strain of Covid from spreading to Britain. Jonathan Van Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, has told doctors, nurses and GPs to take "immediate action" against a new strain of the virus feared to be resistant to vaccines. In a letter circulated to health chiefs, co-signed by the NHS medical director, Professor Steve Powis, hospitals have been told that any coronavirus patients who recently travelled to Denmark must be isolated, treated in specialist centres and gene tested for the new strain. The measures are similar to those taken in early March, when the Government tried to prevent Covid from spreading into the UK from China and mainland Europe. Meanwhile, vets in Denmark began the grim task of gassing and burning 17 million mink in a bid to halt further spread of the "cluster five" mutation, so far detected in 12 people after jumping from the animals to humans.