The British government called the new coronavirus a " serious and imminent threat to public health " on Monday February 10 and announced measures to protect the public.
" The incidence or transmission of the new coronavirus poses a serious and imminent threat to public health, " said the Ministry of Health in a statement, explaining that it had taken steps to " delay or prevent further transmissions of the virus ."
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Under the new measures, people with coronaviruses can now be forced into quarantine and will not be free to leave, and can be isolated against their will if they pose a threat to public health.
" We are tightening our regulations so that we can keep people in solitary confinement for their own safety and if public health professionals believe they are at risk of spreading the virus to others ," a spokesperson for the ministry said. Ministry of Health. " This measure will facilitate the work of health professionals in order to contribute to the safety of people across the country ."
The government has announced that Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside (northern England) and the center of Kents Hill Park in Milton Keynes (central England) will be used for " isolation " while that Wuhan City, the cradle of the epidemic, and Hubei Province are considered an " infected area ".
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The new coronavirus has killed 908 people in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao), where the number of people infected exceeds 40,000, according to the last assessment established Monday February 10 by the authorities, confirming a certain stability in the progression of the epidemic.
In the past 24 hours, 97 new deaths have been reported in mainland China, including 91 in Hubei. The country has counted more than 3000 new cases of contamination. There are four confirmed cases of people with the new coronavirus in the UK. A Briton, who caught the virus in Singapore, also appears to be linked to seven other cases in England, France and Spain, the British press reported on Monday (February 10th).