UK expected to impose stricter coronavirus measures

The UK government is preparing to move to a new phase of its coronavirus action plan, paving the way for school closures, restrictions on big events and enforcing home working, according to reports.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee at lunchtime on Thursday that is expected to approve a move from containing the virus to the "delay" stage, Sky News reported.

The government has been trying to stop the virus being transmitted within the UK but on Monday Johnson said this strategy was "extremely unlikely to work on its own". With the number of cases rising rapidly the government is now moving to the next stage which is to defer the spread of the disease to keep pressure off the overstretched health service until the winter is over.

The number of coronavirus patients in the UK rose by 87 to 460 on Wednesday, the biggest daily increase so far. The number of deaths increased to eight as the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a pandemic.

The government's coronavirus action plan says possible measures in the delay phase include “population distancing strategies such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large-scale gatherings”. Reducing non-urgent emergency services is also an option.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted: "As soon as the government officially moves us to the ‘delay’ stage, it is effectively confirming that an epidemic IS coming." He said the UK now had more cases than there were in China's Wuhan province when it went into lockdown.