The SNP leader spoke gravely about the situation of coronavirus in Scotland and how it is a very “serious” situation. Ms Sturgeon even stated that if the outbreak of the virus got worse, schools and universities would be closed.

She said: “At this point, we’ve confirmed 3 cases, I expect that to rise significantly in the days to come”

Before adding: “We face a serious situation, but it is being taken seriously.”

Twitter users did not hesitate to tell the independence fighter how they felt about her warnings.

One said: “Too much fear-mongering! 100’s of thousands die from the common cold!”Another replied: “Longest I’ve ever heard her talk without mentioning Independence.”

A third shared: “ Switched off @Peston after Nicola Sturgeon.”

While a fourth exclaimed: “ She can’t stop pigeon poo deaths in our flagship hospital. How on Earth is she doing the publicity rounds in media on this? DISGRACE.”

It comes after The UK had seen its biggest day-on-day increase in coronavirus cases, with 87 people now confirmed to have the virus.

Three of the 32 new cases recorded in England were passed on in the UK, raising fears that community transmission may now be taking hold.

England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, warned that a UK epidemic is looking ‘likely”.

Meanwhile, the UK Prime Minister announced new sick pay changes as part of emergency coronavirus legislation so that anyone self-isolating is paid from day one rather than day four as current rules state.

Boris Johnson told MPs that people who self-isolate are “helping to protect all of us by slowing the spread of the virus”.

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He added: “If they stay at home and if we ask people to self-isolate, they may lose out financially.

“So, I can today announce that the Health Secretary will bring forward, as part of our emergency coronavirus legislation, measures to allow the payment of statutory sick pay from the very first day you are sick instead of four days under the current rules, and I think that’s the right way forward.

“Nobody should be penalised for doing the right thing.”

Prof Whitty said the new cases in the UK included 32 patients from England.

“Twenty-nine patients were diagnosed who had recently travelled from recognised countries or from recognised clusters which were under investigation,” he said.

“Three additional patients contracted the virus in the UK and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad. This is being investigated and contact tracing has begun.”

The Department of Health has been updating the UK figures daily, with one Northern Ireland case among the 85 recorded at 2pm on Wednesday.
However, Northern Ireland later confirmed two more cases, taking the UK total to 87.

Earlier, Prof Whitty told the BBC there could be a need to do “extreme things” to protect the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions.

He added: “At this point in time we think it is likely, not definite, that we will move into onward transmission and an epidemic here in the UK.”

But he stressed that for most people, “this will be a mild or moderate disease, anything from a sniffle to having to go to bed for a few days, rather like with mild flu”.

On the NHS, Prof Whitty said: “The NHS will always cope because the NHS is an emergency service which is very good at adapting to what it finds itself with.”

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