This set a new record day-on-day rise in UK cases – up from 456 the day before. The death toll reached 10 after an 89-year-old died at Charing Cross Hospital and a woman in her sixties died at Queen’s Hospital. NHS England confirmed that both patients in London had underlying health conditions. Parents reported that shops had run out of Calpol and supermarkets continued to ration essentials such as pasta, baked beans and some medicines.

Care home provider Barchester asked visitors to stay away from more than 200 facilities in the UK with more than 11,000 residents.

A letter to residents, patients and visitors said: “As a preventative measure, we are asking visitors, including family members and friends, to stop routinely visiting our care homes and hospitals until further notice.”

Meanwhile, clergy have been advised to use hand sanitiser and not offer the chalice during Holy Communion.

Dr Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester, urged priests to place the wafer in worshippers’ hands rather than on to their tongues.

He added: “No one should use the laying-on of hands in any prayer or liturgical rite in church.

“All holy water stoups, or the should be emptied and not refilled for devotional use until these restrictions are lifted.”

The Oak Tree Academy in Stockton-on-Tees sent pupils home after one came into contact with a confirmed case. Three more students were diagnosed with the virus at the University of Oxford, taking the total to five.

And health officials were searching for anyone who came into contact with a paramedic at the East of England Ambulance Service, who tested positive in Hertfordshire.

The Department of Health confirmed 491 people had tested positive in England, whileWales had 25 cases and Northern Ireland 20.

Cases in Scotland shot up overnight, rising by 24 to a total of 60. Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Now is the time for the UK Government to ban large gatherings, ask people to stop non-essential travel, recommend employers shift to home working and ramp up the response.

“The curve can be shifted [like South Korea and Singapore] but only with government action.”

The UK’s four chief medical officers, the General Medical Council and NHS England have written to doctors warning that they may need to work outside their usual area of expertise as they deal with a “very abnormal emergency situation”.

The letter urged staff to “stick to the basic principles of being a good doctor” but to “be flexible in what they do”.

Two films – Fast And Furious 9 and A Quiet Place Part 2 – have postponed planned releases.

US actor and director John Krasinski told A Quiet Place fans: “One of the things I’m most proud of is that people have said our movie is one you have to see all Well due to the ever-changing circumstances of what’s going on in the world around us, now is clearly not the right time to do that.”

The European premiere of Mulan, which is being held in London on Thursday, will no longer have a red carpet but will instead be limited to an inside screening.

The Who have postponed their UK and Ireland tour due to concerns around fan safety.

The band were due to kick off their tour at the Manchester Arena on Monday.

Lead singer Roger Daltrey said the shows will “definitely happen and it may be the last time we do a tour of this type, so keep tickets, as the shows will be fantastic”.

Sporting events remained in jeopardy last night as fans waited to hear if major tournaments would be called off. Uefa will meet on Tuesday to decide whether to postpone Euro 2020 – due to take place in June and July at venues across Europe – by a year.

Symptoms Three Leicester City football players have self-isolated as a precaution after developing symptoms of the killer bug.

Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers said they had been advised by the NHS that their symptoms were “consist together with common seasonal illness” but that they should minimise contact with others for seven days.

He added: “We’ve followed procedure and they have been kept away at this moment from the rest of the squad and then we’ll see how that develops.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea carried out a deep clean of their Cobham training base in a bid to beef up their fight against the coronavirus.

Some experts said the mounting cases showed that efforts to contain the virus had not gone far enough.

Martin Hibberd, professor of emerging infectious disease at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “The UK response has clearly not been sufficient, as numbers are continuing to climb and we are at risk of following the trajectory of other European countries.”

However, others said taking dramatic action too quickly could create more problems.

Dr Mike Turner, director of science at the Wellcome Trust, said: “There is an incredibly difficult balancing act going on. Being too slow to react has potentially dangerous consequences. Over-reacting is also potentially dangerous, though for different reasons.

“The core difficulty is that we are still learning about what is similar to things we know about other coronaviruses and things that are different.”

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