There are likely to be “many more cases” of suspected coronavirus across the UK, a professor has said as four people undergo tests in Scotland.

Three people are being tested in Edinburgh and another case is believed to be in Glasgow, Professor Jurgen Haas said.

The head of infection medicine at the University of Edinburgh said he believes there will probably be similar cases in “many other cities” in the UK.

None of the patients have been confirmed as having the disease.

They all travelled to Scotland from Wuhan – where the outbreak is thought to have originated – within the past two weeks and are showing symptoms of respiratory trouble, a red flag for the virus.

Prof Haas told the PA news agency: “We have currently three cases suspected Wuhan coronavirus in Edinburgh and as far as I understand one case in Glasgow.”

He said the cases emerged overnight, adding: “The situation will be pretty similar in pretty much all UK cities with a large number of Chinese students.

“It’s not too surprising. My suspicion is that there will probably be many more cases in many other cities in the UK.

“None of the cases I know of have been confirmed.”

He said there is only one laboratory testing for the virus, operated by Public Health England (PHE).

The professor said the cases have been flagged up through the PHE infection guidelines as they travelled to Wuhan within the last 14 days and are showing signs of respiratory symptoms.

Meanwhile, three separate research teams are to start work on developing potential vaccines against the new virus that is causing a disease epidemic in China, a global coalition set up to fight diseases said on Thursday.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is co-funding the emergency projects, said the plan was to have at least one potential vaccine in clinical trials by June.

The research will be conducted by the drug and vaccine developer, Moderna, working with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the U.S. firm Inovio Pharma, and a team at the University of Queensland, Australia.

A new coronavirus that first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan has killed 17 people and infected more than 600, most in China but cases have been detected as far away as the United States.

Each of the three projects will test a distinct scientific approach to developing a preventative vaccine against the China virus, known as nCoV-2019.

“Our aspiration with these technologies is to bring a new pathogen from gene sequence to clinical testing in 16 weeks,” said Richard Hatchett, CEPI’s chief executive.

“There are no guarantees of success, but we hope this work could provide a significant and important step forward in developing a vaccine for this disease.”

• Read More: A&Es in Ireland on ‘heightened alert’ after suspected China coronavirus case leads to decontamination

This comes as Chinese face mask manufacturers are reopening factories shut for a national holiday, promising workers up to four times their normal wages as consumers emptied out stock in stores in a race to protect themselves from the coronavirus infection.

Worried about the potential for a global pandemic, China is putting Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak and a city of 11 million, on lockdown. The decision was praised by the World Health Organization as a strong one that could limit contagion but has also heightened fears about the virus.

“From what I have heard, the mask shortage is much, much more severe than what the public knows,” said Cao Jun, general manager of mask manufacturer Lanhine, which has a factory in east China’s Ningbo city.

“Almost all hospital workers nationwide are facing a huge shortage of masks, not just in Wuhan. That’s very terrible.”

Cao said the firm’s clients are demanding a combined 200 million masks per day compared to its normal production rate of 400,000 a day.

“At the moment, we have 20-plus people in the factory, working 24 hours. We’re offering them quadruple their wages per day,” Cao told Reuters. “We aim to ramp up output on Jan. 27 and be at full capacity on Feb. 1, when we’d have nearly 200 workers.”

Another manufacturer, CMmask, in eastern China’s Jiande city, told Reuters it was offering workers triple their wages if they came back.

“Our factory is out of stock now, but we have extended our working hours by four hours to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m,” said Hu Qinghui, CMmask’s deputy general manager.

U.S. firms 3M and Honeywell International issued statements saying that they would make every effort to ensure a continuous supply of masks during the holiday and that their official stores would not raise prices.

China’s industry ministry on Wednesday launched an “emergency coordination effort”, asking local authorities to work with factories “to overcome labour difficulties during the Spring Festival, accelerate production and do their utmost to increase supply to the market,” state media reported.

Firms from drugmakers to makers of thermometers have also said they would step up production. Xinlong Holding, a manufacturer of filters and fabrics for masks, said some of its factories had “abandoned the Spring Festival holiday.”

Tech giant Alibaba Group told the state-backed China News Service it was working with 92 mask manufacturers, which currently have a combined supply of 42 million masks. Another 1.57 million more will be made before the week-long holiday officially starts on Friday, it said.

E-commerce platforms, including Alibaba’s Taobao, JD.com and Pinduoduo Inc have also pledged to crack down on any vendors who might try to raise prices of masks and disinfectant products.

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