Four of the 32 cruise ship passengers taken to Arrowe Park, Merseyside, on Saturday have tested positive for coronavirus strain COVID-19, the Chief Medical Officer for England has said.

The passengers spent two weeks quarantined on board the Diamond Princess liner before being flown into the UK last night.

The evacuation flight landed at Boscombe Down airbase in Wiltshire yesterday, after leaving Tokyo on Friday night.

A bus arrives near the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where dozens of passengers were tested positive for coronavirus, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama

The people, which include 30 Brits and two Irish nationals, now face a further two weeks in quarantine on Merseyside.

A statement on the Department of Health website said: 'Four further patients in England have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to thirteen.

'The virus was passed on in the Diamond Princess cruise ship and the patients are being transferred from Arrowe Park to specialist NHS infection centres.'

Those centres are believed to be either the Royal Liverpool Hospital, or a hospital in Sheffield.

An ambulance, believed to be carrying a coronavirus patient, leaves the cruise ship Diamond Princess at Daikoku Pier on February 18

The news comes just days after 83 British evacuees were released from the unit on the Wirral after spending two weeks in quarantine there following a flight out of the epicentre of the disease in Wuhan.

A total of 78 Brits were on board the Diamond Princess, which has been docked in Yokohama for two weeks, but officials said some refused to board the evacuation flight.

Many of them were flown home on Saturday but some remain in Asia, including couple David and Sally Abel, from Northamptonshire, who have pneumonia and are being treated in Japan.

The 32 British and European passengers who were on the coronavirus-riddled Diamond Princess arrived at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside (pictured is a woman doing a love heart shape with her hands and a man making an OK symbol)

Those who returned at around 6pm on Saturday were split between three coaches along with medical professionals wearing white hazmat suits.

Two police cars, two ambulances, several police motorbikes and a fourth coach with no passengers were also in the convoy.

An accommodation block, separate to the main hospital building, will be home to the evacuees while they undergo health checks in quarantine.

There have been 634 infections on the ship, according to national broadcaster NHK. Those cases represent the largest concentration of the illness outside China.

The ship is owned by Carnival Corp and was originally carrying some 3,700 passengers and crew representing more than a dozen nationalities.

In a statement earlier today, the Japanese health ministry identified another victim as a Japanese man in his 80s who was removed from the Diamond Princess and taken to a local hospital after suffering 'symptoms.'

On the way to Arrowe Park, the group were split between three coaches along with medical professionals wearing white hazmat suits as they arrived

The ministry did not confirm whether the man had tested positive for COVID-19.

The death comes after two other elderly passengers, also both Japanese and in their 80s, died on Thursday after contracting the virus.

Following news that a passenger who tested negative later developed the virus, Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato has said that the government will have to keep close tabs on those who were allowed to leave the ship.

The country's health authorities will make daily phone calls to hundreds of people who have disembarked from the Diamond Princess, Kyodo News in Japan reports.

Wirral Teaching Hospital NHS Trust chief executive Janelle Holmes said the quarantined group will be 'safe, well-managed and comfortable' during their fortnight stay at an on-site accommodation block - while the staff previously living there remain in nearby hotels.

According to Worldometer, there are 78,973 cases of the virus worldwide, 2,470 deaths and 23,418 who have recovered.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said his government was maintaining 'an extremely high level of precaution' after 45 people were diagnosed with the virus.

The Italian authorities placed 50,000 people in lockdown in ten towns in Lombardy and Veneto, telling them to remain indoors.

Turkey, Pakistan and Armenia have closed their borders with Iran as it reported 43 infections and eight deaths this weekend.