Coronavirus: Number of UK cases grows to 51

The number of people diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK has risen to 51, health secretary Matt Hancock has announced.

The minister said the threat of coronavirus to the UK was "increasingly serious" but claimed the government and health service were "well-prepared".

In a Commons statement, he said the number of confirmed cases had risen by 12 in the last 24 hours.

"The situation facing the country is increasingly serious," he said.

"Globally and at home the number of cases continues to rise.

"As of 9am today there were 51 confirmed cases in the UK and it's becoming more likely that we will see widespread transmission here in this country."

Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he was confident that the British public would meet the "national challenge" presented by the coronavirus outbreak.

"I have got absolutely no doubt that we have the resources, we have got the health service, we have got the expertise to do it," the prime minister added.

He made these remarks while launching the government's "battle plan" to manage coronavirus in the UK.

In a 27-page document, the government lays out possible measures to help combat the outbreak, including closing schools, reducing large gatherings and calling retired doctors and nurses back to duty.

The plan also says that 20 per cent of workers could be off sick at the peak of the outbreak, while the police may have capacity to only deal with serious crime.

Government scientific experts think the UK will experience a coronavirus peak two or three months after person-to-person transmission becomes widespread.

They suggest that this will be followed by two or three months of decline, indicating that the outbreak may last roughly four to six months.

Legislation giving the government emergency powers to help manage Covid-19 is expected to go through the Commons by the end of March. ​

Additional reporting from PA