The first person diagnosed with coronavirus in London turned up unannounced at a hospital in an Uber taxi after falling ill.

Two staff from Lewisham hospital in south London are now in isolation at home after coming into contact with the woman, a Chinese national who had recently arrived in the city from China.

Lewisham hospital on Thursday confirmed the unnamed patient had not followed public health officials’ advice and had simply “self-presented” at its A&E unit on Sunday afternoon.

She did not arrive by ambulance or her own private vehicle and went straight to the A&E reception desk to report her symptoms – both clear breaches of guidance aimed at stopping the spread of the virus.

No other patients were exposed to the risk of infection by the manner of her arrival, the hospital said.

The woman was then sent home pending the results of her tests. On Wednesday she was taken to another London hospital, St Thomas’, for treatment.

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CLYDEBANK

A man was repeatedly stabbed in front of a horrified taxi driver yesterday outside the shop where Paige Doherty was murdered.

The victim is understood to have been knifed in the neck in a cab in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, after a passenger from another vehicle attacked him in the early hours of the morning. 

A source close to the taxi driver, who works for Clydebank Private Hire, said the inside of the cab was left splattered in blood when the passenger was stabbed several times around the head on Fleming Avenue - just yards from the abandoned deli where 15-year-old Paige was killed in 2016.
Police Scotland said they were investigating the incident yesterday and a 27-year-old man had been arrested in connection with a road traffic matter.

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 Uber is going back to the future in Arizona, with an “innovation” that will allow customers to book a ride over the telephone. On Thursday, the company that triggered the collapse of untold numbers of traditional taxi companies will acknowledge that not everyone finds its smartphone app more convenient.

 It is piloting “a new phone booking feature that lets you request a ride without the Uber app” in all the cities in Arizona it currently serves, with a view to rolling it out across the US.

 The feature involves calling a human being, requesting a car, and waiting to be picked up at the side of the road.“This new feature combines the efficiency of Uber’s matching technology with the convenience and additional support of a live team member,” the company said.

 “It was designed with older adults in mind, though our hope is anyone preferring conversational support will benefit from this pilot.”The “live team members” will be based in the US and overseas, Uber said, and will speak Spanish as well as English.

 Riders will not need to be preregistered on Uber to use the service — they can set up an account over the phone in “minutes” — but they will need a mobile device capable of receiving a text message that confirms the booking and alerts when the driver has arrived.

The move could help Uber increase its customer base at a time when its goal of future profitability relies on eking out added value from its presence in more than 800 cities globally. But the similarities with long-existing services was not lost on transportation experts.

“It seems a little strange to me, honestly,” said Professor Genevieve Giuliano, director of the METRANS Transportation Center at the University of Southern California. “My first reaction is: so Uber is becoming a taxi system.”

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WILTSHIRE

Angry taxi drivers in north Wiltshire are threatening to stop working on a Sunday if new fares are introduced. They say it won’t be worth their while working at the new tariff fares proposed by Wiltshire Council.
Currently, drivers can charge a higher rage of £7.20 a mile all day on Sunday, higher than the £5.20 Monday to Saturday day rate.

But the proposed new tariffs mean that would be cut to £5.50 a mile.

There are further changes proposed affecting fares in the early hours.

The current second tariff tier (£7.20 a mile), which runs from 10.30pm to 2.29am, would start at 10pm and be extended to 5.59am and the previous third tier (£8.50 a mile) removed.

Under the new proposals, it will start earlier at 10pm instead of 10.30pm and last until 5.59am at a flat rate of £7.50 per mile.

Vivienne Pepler, the representative for more than 330 north Wiltshire taxi drivers, said: “The changes mean they want us to work all through the week at tariff one, which is a much lower fare rate.

“Our taxi drivers in north Wiltshire say they will refuse to work all day Sunday if they don’t get tariff two. They are not willing to work for nothing.”

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