Coronavirus: Four patients in Scotland tested for the virus
A small number of patients in Scotland are being tested for coronavirus after showing symptoms of the infection.
Professor Juergen Haas, head of infection medicine at Edinburgh University, told the BBC that there were three suspected cases in Edinburgh.
He said they all had respiratory symptoms and had been in the city of Wuhan in the last 14 days.
The fourth case is thought to be in Glasgow.
The city of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated, is building a dedicated hospital to treat patients, according to state media outlet Beijing News.
The virus has caused 17 deaths in the Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital.
Chinese authorities today put three cities – Wuhan, Huanggang and Ezhou – into lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of infection.
There have been more than 600 confirmed cases which span across Asia, as well as one confirmed case in the US.
The Vietnamese health ministry today said that two Chinese citizens in Vietnam are confirmed to be carrying the virus.
Singapore also confirmed that a 66-year-old Chinese national who lives in Wuhan has been infected, according to the Straits Times.
Dubai today announced that it will begin screening passengers arriving on direct flights from China, and South Africa said it would step up surveillance.
The Indian minister of state for external affairs, Vellamvelly Muraleedharan, tweeted: “About 100 Indian nurses mostly from Kerala working at Al-Hayat hospital have been tested and none except one nurse was found infected by Corona virus.”
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the death toll from coronavirus is likely to rise further.
He said: “All the fatalities have so far been contained to mainland China, however, this is a rapidly developing situation and the number of deaths and the number of cases is likely to be higher than those that have been confirmed so far and I expect them to rise further.”