The county’s director of public health, Liz Morgan, provided an update on novel coronavirus at a meeting of the council’s health and wellbeing board.

She explained that like all coronaviruses, it is believed to have originated in animals, though it is not known which, and it causes a range of illnesses from mild respiratory symptoms to sever pneumonia.

It mainly effects older people and those with long-term conditions, so ‘in 80% of people, it’s a very mild illness’.

File picture from PA of health Officials in hazmat suits checking body temperatures of passengers arriving from the city of Wuhan in January, 2020, at the airport in Beijing.

The World Health Organisation says coronavirus has spread to 25 countries. Of 45,171 confirmed cases, 44,730 are in China, where the death toll is at more than 1,100.

In the rest of the world, there have been fewer than 1,500 cases and just one death. There are now nine confirmed coronavirus patients in England, out of more than 1,750 tested.

Ms Morgan said: “There is a really low proportion of cases outside China and the objective is still to try to contain this infection. The risk to individuals in the UK remains low.”

The official UK risk level has been raised to moderate, on the advice of the four UK Chief Medical Officers, but ‘this does not mean they think the risk to individuals in the UK has changed at this stage, but that government should plan for all eventualities’.

In Northumberland, as elsewhere, there are plans in place to manage any escalation.

Advice for residents is the same as for winter colds and flu – regular hand-washing; not touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands; coughing or sneezing into tissues which are then binned; avoiding unwell people; and staying away from work or school if you are unwell.

“We’re still in winter flu season, so there’s no harm in promoting good respiratory hygiene,” Ms Morgan added.