Panic set in yesterday following the closure of a doctor’s surgery and schools as the number of coronavirus cases in the UK doubled within 24 hours.

Of four new confirmed cases, two are GPs who are understood to have contracted the illness from a "superspreader" during a skiing trip in the French Alps. The new cases take the total number of infections in England to eight.

It comes as the Telegraph has learned that a quarantined British patient threatening to abscond from coronavirus facilities has forced the Health Secretary to tighten quarantine rules.

Matt Hancock declared the spread of the virus to be a "serious and imminent threat" to the public, giving the Government greater powers to fight the spread of the virus, in light of recent confirmed cases in Britain.

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