Credit;PA
The total number of cases of Coronavirus across the UK jumps to 163.
The Department of Health confirmed a total of 47 people have tested positive for coronavirus across Britain in the last 24 hours.
Yesterday, a 75-year-old British woman became the first patient to die in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus.
Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, told Sky News: “We should expect more cases in the UK, this is the start of an outbreak, clearly.
“We have cases across Europe, across the world, this is a global epidemic and we would expect to see more cases in the UK.
“We’ve got a reasonable worst-case scenario… that involves 80 per cent of the population and we think the mortality rate is one per cent or lower. I expect it to be less than that.
“It takes about 12 weeks to reach the peak then maybe about 12 weeks to go away again.”
Public Health England (PHE) is urging members of the public to “plan ahead” for if they had to self-isolate for a couple of weeks.
In two new blog posts, PHE said more people may be asked to self-isolate at home to help slow the spread of coronavirus, while “social distancing” measures such as not going to cinemas, pubs or sporting events may be needed in the future.
It said people could look ahead, asking themselves to “consider how you or your family would manage if you had to self-isolate for a couple of weeks”, or if social-distancing measures were eventually brought in to reduce people mixing.
It added: “Everyone has a part to play, and we’re asking people to think about what they do in a typical week, how they could limit contact with others if asked to, and how they could help people in their community, who might need support if certain social-distancing measures were put in place.
