Coronavirus UK: Urgent search for people in contact with Newcastle patients

People who had recent contact with Britain's first coronavirus patients are being hunted by health chiefs so they can be checked for symptoms.

Two members of the same family tested positive for the SARS-like virus in England and there are fears they could have spread the killer bug to others.

They are being treated in isolation in an infectious diseases unit at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary.

An outbreak investigation team has been formed to trace anyone who has been in contact with the pair to prevent the illness spreading.

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Public Health England Professor Sharon Peacock, director for national infection service, said: "We were able to stand up an outbreak investigation team immediately and that team is working now, and what they'll be doing is aiming to contact everybody who has been in contact with these two cases and prevent onward transmission."

The two patients who have tested positive for coronavirus in England are in a high consequence infectious disease unit in Newcastle, said Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England.

Medical chiefs declined to give any detail on the condition of the two patients confirmed to have the virus, including where they are from and if they had travelled to the UK from China, citing patient confidentiality.

The cases were confirmed on Friday as a rescue flight carrying 83 British citizens was en route to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire from Wuhan, the epicentre of China's outbreak.

After medical screening, the Britons will be taken to a former student housing block on the grounds of Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral.

They will spend 14 days in isolation due to fears that some could be infected.

More than 210 people have died in China and more than 9,800 others have been infected. Most of the cases have been in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.

Chinese officials said it can take up to two weeks for symptoms to appear and the virus can spread from person to person before they show.

Anyone who comes to the UK from anywhere in China and shows any symptoms associated with the coronavirus should "self-isolate" for 14 days, Prof Whitty said.

He said said the widening of previous advice was a planned change and is not related to the two confirmed cases.

"If people from China mainland have any symptoms they should self-isolate for 14 days after they have come back from China," he said at a briefing on Friday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared a global health emergency as hundreds more cases are reported every day.

It is believed the new strain of coronavirus was passed to humans at a market in Wuhan that sold live animals and illegal wildlife. 

It can spread from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes, with an incubation period of one to 14 days.

Symptoms include fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Severe cases can cause pneumonia, kidney failure and other complications.