The BBC reports that a new coronavirus which causes respiratory illness has a third confirmed case in the United Kingdom. Overall, “there have been 11 confirmed cases of the infection around the world.”  The BBC report quotes Professor John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the Health Protection Agency (HPA), as saying: "Confirmed novel coronavirus infection in a person without travel history to the Middle East suggests that person-to-person transmission has occurred, and that it occurred in the United Kingdom. Although this case provides strong evidence for person-to-person transmission, the risk of infection in most circumstances is still considered to be very low."

James Gallagher, the health and science reporter for BBC News, writes, “The exact source of the new virus and how it spreads is still unknown. The leading theory is that it comes from animals, the new SARS-like virus does appear to be closely related to bats. However, if the infection needs to jump from an animal to a person with each infection the threat would be much lower.”

Citing The World Health Organization, which reported cases from within the same family in Saudi Arabia in November 2012, the BBC story notes that, “It was impossible to tell whether each patient caught the infection separately—or if it had spread between them.” The story continues, “A WHO spokesperson said: ‘We know that in some of those cases there was close physical contact between family members caring for one another, so we can't rule out human-to-human transmission.’" The two cases in the United Kingdom, with only one case linked to foreign travel, provide the strongest evidence that the infection can spread between people. The HPA said it was "overwhelmingly likely" that human-to-human transmission had occurred. However, as Gallagher notes, “if the virus could readily and easily spread between people then far more cases than the 11 detected so far would have been detected.”

The BBC report also cites three experts in the United Kingdom. Professor John Oxford, a virology expert at Queen Mary, University of London, said: "This doesn't raise too many alarm bells. In a family, things can spread far more easily than they would spread outside, people share towels and toothbrushes, etc. If it was somebody who was not related or a nurse or a doctor—that would be a lot more serious."

Professor Ian Jones, from the University of Reading, said: "There is really close contact involved here, it is not 'true' human transmission in the general public. Although it is severe, it's not doing anything worse than some other respiratory infections, it's just a new one."

Professor Wendy Barclay, from Imperial College London, said it was wise to monitor the virus. "We're an incremental step closer to worrying, but it isn't a worry where we need to say there is a pandemic coming," she said