CORONAVIRUS has been confirmed in the Bournemouth area by health officials.

Public Health England confirmed two cases of COVID-19 in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council area.

These are the first confirmed cases of the virus within the authority's boundaries, and take the number of confirmed cases in the south west to 35 and the UK to 273.

No further details have been released about the two cases locally although The Gym Poole has said a member has been 'diagnoised with coronavirus'.

Latest figures show 23,513 people have been tested for the virus in the UK, with just 273 testing positive – a rate of 1.1per cent.

Two patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK have died.

Supermarkets across the region have reported coronavirus panic buying throughout the weekend.

Tesco has started rationing food across all of its UK stores.

The supermarket giant is limiting the amount of baked beans, UHT milk and dry pasta customers can purchase.

By Saturday evening there were no Heinz Baked Beans available at Tesco's Tower Park in Poole. Dry pasta looked in short supply and UHT milk appeared to be running low.

Tesco Tower Park staff told the Echo that Saturday had been one of their busiest days with worried shoppers stocking up on basic items, toilet rolls in particular.

Elsewhere, customers have reported shortages of ready meals and paracetamol.

Current government advice remains to stay indoors and avoid contact with people for 14 days if you've travelled to the UK from Iran, Hubei province in China, any of the Italian lockdown areas or special care zones in South Korea – even if you do not have any symptoms.

You are also advised to stay indoors and avoid contact with other people if you've travelled to the UK from the following places in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath, even if your symptoms are mild.

These areas include mainland China outside Hubei province; Italy outside the lockdown areas; South Korea outside the special care zones, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Use the 111 online coronavirus service to find out what to do next.

Meanwhile, countries responding to any coronavirus outbreak should be prioritising support for their health workers, a World Health Organisation (WHO) doctor has said.

Dr Margaret Harris told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "They should be your number one priority. All your health staff, your nursing staff, your allied professionals, the people cleaning the wards.

"I'm a doctor myself, but it's not just the doctors who need special treatment, special consideration.

"They need all the protective equipment, they also need training, they also need access, to know how to do the swab, when to do the swab, where the testing comes from.

"And they need back-up, they need other people to come and do the shifts. If they're working massively, they are tremendously at risk."

Asked if Army field hospitals could play a role in the response to the coronavirus outbreak, Dr Harris said: "Certainly the Army has great experience of putting up field hospitals, I've worked in Ebola and I've seen what the British Army can do. It's quite incredible.

"So this is the sort of planning you should be thinking about. Can you set up a field hospital, where do you set it up? What equipment have you got and what staff have you got and how can you protect everybody working in those conditions?"

The chair of the Royal College of GPs has said tackling coronavirus will likely lead to hospitals having to cut down on "other work".

Speaking on Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Professor Martin Marshall said: "This is a significant crisis for the health service and the health service is already under pressure.

"If we are going to try and continue doing what we are doing at the health service and tackle coronavirus, it will require a significant amount of resources.

"I expect we will cut down in terms of the other work we do."