World approaching coronavirus 'tipping point’ says expert as two patients are treated in Sheffield

Two of the four infected Britons who were rescued from the stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship stationed off Japan were taken to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, with the others taken to hospitals in Liverpool and Newcastle, all of which have specialist units for dealing with infectious diseases.

Confirmation of those four cases brings the total number of people to be diagnosed with the Covid-19 strain in the UK to 13.

Of the 13 people in the UK diagnosed with coronavirus, eight have now been discharged from hospital and one remains at St Thomas' Hospital in London.

The death toll in China passed 2,500 deaths early on Monday, with the country's authorities also reporting 77,345 people had tested positive for the disease.

The increases came as South Korea reported another two deaths - taking its total to seven - and a rise in confirmed cases by 161 to 763.

The University of East Anglia's Professor Paul Hunter said recent cases outside China have been ‘extremely concerning’.

He listed South Korea, Japan and Iran as causes for concern and called a cluster of cases in Italy ‘a big worry for Europe’.

“The director-general of the World Health Organisation has recently spoken of a narrowing of the window of opportunity to control the current epidemic,” he added.

"The tipping point after which our ability to prevent a global pandemic seems a lot closer after the past 24 hours.”

Professor Keith Willett, NHS strategic incident director for coronavirus, assured people the specialist centres in the UK are ‘well prepared to deal with cases’ as he called for a calm approach in the face of any further potential diagnoses.

The latest four people in the UK to be diagnosed were among 30 Britons and two Irish citizens who arrived at a quarantine block in Merseyside on Saturday following a repatriation flight.

The Department of Health said no-one who boarded the plane had displayed any symptoms of the virus.