The Daily Star's FREE newsletter is spectacular! Sign up today for the best stories straight to your inbox Sign up today! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Coronavirus fears are growing in Britain as police have been handed new powers to force people into quarantine.

New measures have been rolled out with immediate effect as health bosses warned the infection is a “serious and imminent” danger to the UK.

Police will reportedly be deployed with protective hazmat suits and will have the power to arrest people if they are feared to have the virus.

They will also be allowed to "round up" any potential carriers who leave the country's two so-called "isolation facilities" without permission, reports Daily Mail.

Anyone who fails to comply could face arrest and a fine of £1,000.

Cops have reportedly been given powers to enter "any place" and use "reasonable force" if they suspect someone has returned from an infected area and not agreed to quarantine.

The plans have been signed off by healthy secretary Matt Hancock as Britain tires to clamp down on the virus.

(Image: Steve Reigate)

Police have been granted the “unprecedented” new powers, reports the Telegraph, amid fears two GPs may have passed on the virus

It was confirmed yesterday the number of infected people in Britain has doubled as panic came to Brighton.

Health chiefs had to close down a GP practice in the south coast city as its feared to be at the centre of the outbreak, which started in China.

And an unnamed businessman who contracted the virus in Singapore has been dubbed the “ super spreader” – believed to have passed on the infection to 11 others before visiting the clinic.

(Image: Getty Images)

UK officials are working to trace patients of the two doctors who are among eight people in the UK to be diagnosed with coronavirus.

They were two of four new cases announced on Monday, all of whom contracted the virus in France and are now being treated at specialist infection centres at St Thomas' and the Royal Free hospitals in London.

As the new cases were announced, the County Oak Medical Centre in Brighton closed its doors "because of an urgent operational health and safety reason".

People wearing protective full body suits and gloves were seen cleaning the centre in footage shared online on Monday.

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Patients should not be alarmed as it is still more likely that anyone with flu-like symptoms will have the flu.

"However, in light of the members of staff who tested positive for coronavirus in Brighton we'd like to remind the public that it is vital that any patient who thinks they may have symptoms does not try to attend a GP appointment or hospital emergency departments in person.

"They should stay at home and call NHS 111."

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

The Department of Health said people with coronavirus can now be forcibly quarantined, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat.

Reportedly the decision was in response to one of the Britons who returned from Wuhan in China, the source of the coronavirus outbreak, attempting to leave isolation at Arrowe Park Hospital on Merseyside.

Officials stressed that the risk to the public has not changed.

Britons who have been flown back from Wuhan are currently being held at Arrowe Park Hospital and Kents Hill Park in Milton Keynes.

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

The first two people in the UK confirmed to have coronavirus - a University of York student and their relative - are still being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases centre in Newcastle.

Researchers in China have said the virus can have an incubation period of up to 24 days.

British Airways became the latest airline to extend its suspension of flights serving Beijing and Shanghai.

It comes as the Coronavirus death toll has hit 1,000 and more than 43,000 people have been infected worldwide.

(Image: Getty Images)

Fears continue that China is withhold information about the truth of the outbreak which started in the city of Wuhan.

Experts believe the virus spread from an exotic meat market – serving up animals such as bats – before going global due to infected victims boarding flights.

Coronavirus is thought to have an incubation period of several weeks but will still be infectious, meaning people may spread the virus without even displaying symptoms.

And the virus is feared to be able to live on surfaces for up to nine days.

Coronavirus then morphs into a fever, dry cough and pneumonia – and is particularly dangerous to children and the elderly.