The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Wales while two more two more people in England have tested positive for the disease.

It brings the total number of cases in England to 17 and the UK to 19, England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said.

A person tested positive for the disease in Northern Ireland yesterday, leaving Scotland as the only UK region where no cases have been detected.

The two new cases in England were passed on in Iran and the patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

The Welsh patient contracted the disease in northern Italy – the epicentre of Europe’s outbreak where 15 people have died since Friday.

Wales’ chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton said: ‘I can confirm that one patient in Wales has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).

‘All appropriate measures to provide care for the individual and to reduce the risk of transmission to others are being taken.

‘I can also confirm that the patient had travelled back to Wales from Northern Italy, where the virus was contracted.

‘I’d like to take this opportunity to assure the public that Wales and the whole of the UK is well prepared for these types of incidents.

‘Working with our partners in Wales and the UK, we have implemented our planned response, with robust infection control measures in place to protect the health of the public.’

Public Health Wales said medics were trying to trace people who had been in close contact with the patient.

The government has advised anyone returning from northern Italy to self-isolate for 14 days.

Professor Whitty has said that time is running out before coronavirus starts to spread in the UK as he warned of prolonged school closures and cancelled sporting events.

He said the social cost of the virus may include primaries, secondaries, colleges and universities up and down the country shutting their doors for more than two months.

Many schools have already closed after children returned from ski trips in northern Italy that they took during the half term break. Others have sent children and staff home if they were on trips to the Lombardy region and told them to self-isolate.

The two people who tested positive for the disease in England yesterday are understood to have contracted the virus in Italy and Tenerife.

In Tenerife, 168 Britons have been told to isolate themselves at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace after four people who stayed there from Italy were confirmed to have caught coronavirus.

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