NEW “proportionate” powers will provide for more isolation areas to be set up by the NHS to keep people who have contracted the coronavirus in quarantine, the government announced today.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the spread of coronavirus “will get worse before it gets better” as he announced greater powers and funding for isolation units to help stop the spread of the disease, which has been traced back to Wuhan, China.

In a Commons statement, he told MPs that the risk to the public “remains moderate” and the eight patients with confirmed cases of coronavirus in Britain are receiving “expert care.”

The tracing of those who have been in contact with the first four cases in Britain is “complete” and the tracing of those who have been in contact with the remaining four cases is ongoing, he added.

Barnsley East Labour MP Stephanie Peacock asked whether the funds would be new money for the NHS. Mr Hancock responded that it would be and that the government “hasn’t put a cap on it.”

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth raised concerns that the NHS 111 phoneline and GPs are sufficiently resourced to deal with any increase in numbers of patients seeking help.

The businessman at the centre of an outbreak of coronavirus in Britain has thanked the NHS for his treatment and said he is “fully recovered.”

Steve Walsh, from Hove in East Sussex, is still in quarantine at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. He contracted the virus at a conference in Singapore. On his way back, he stopped off for a few days at a French ski chalet, where five British people were infected with the virus.

He is linked to at least five more cases in Britain, including two doctors, one of whom worked at one of two GP surgeries in Brighton that have closed their doors.