Coronavirus: Four more patients test positive in England
There are now eight UK confirmed cases of the virus, which has infected thousands of people globally.
Four more patients in England have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to eight.
The four people infected are all known contacts of a businessman who was diagnosed in Brighton last week and who contracted the virus at a conference in Singapore.
On his way back the UK, he visited a chalet in a ski region of France, where other Britons were subsequently taken ill with the virus.
The Department of Health said the four people newly-diagnosed contracted the virus in France.
It comes as the Government declared coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat to public health” as it introduced new powers to deal with the spread of the virus.
Under new measures announced on Monday, the Department of Health said people with coronavirus can now be forcibly quarantined and will not be free to leave, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat to public health.
It is understood that the decision was in response to one of the Britons who returned from Wuhan attempting to leave isolation.
A Government source said “there was someone who was threatening to abscond from Arrowe Park” despite all the Britons who returned on the evacuation flight signing a contract agreeing to a 14-day quarantine period, which ends this Thursday.
Elsewhere, 60 more people on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in the port of Yokohama have tested positive for coronavirus, Japan’s health minister has said.
Honeymooner Alan Steele was transferred from the cruise liner to hospital in Japan with coronavirus and was said to be feeling well and in good spirits over the weekend.
Mr Steele, originally from Market Drayton, was on board the ship with new wife Wendy, who is from Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, where the newlyweds are planning to live.
They had specifically moved their wedding forward to January in order to spend their honeymoon aboard the Diamond Princess.
There are now 130 confirmed cases on the ship, with officials previously saying 70 people had the virus among the 3,711 passengers and crew.
More than 3,600 people, including 78 British passport holders, are still in a 14-day quarantine on board the ship.
In the UK, a University of York student and their relative are still being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases centre in Newcastle.
There have been more than 40,000 cases of the virus globally, mostly in China, while the death toll in China now stands at 908.
However, the number of newly-infected people per day has stabilised, reports suggest.
