The first case of Covid-19 has been diagnosed in Northern Ireland while two more people have tested positive across the rest of the UK on Thursday.

Iran Press/Europe: Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency announced the case at a briefing in Belfast and said it was “working rapidly” to identify anyone the patient came into contact with to prevent a further spread.

The Northern Ireland patient had recently returned from northern Italy and had previously been in Dublin.

Another of the new cases, a parent at a Buxton primary school in Derbyshire, contracted the virus in Tenerife, where 168 Britons are being kept in a hotel on the south west of the island.

The third patient also contracted the virus in Italy, which has become the worst affected country in Europe with more than 400 cases and 14 deaths.

The new cases bring the total number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 in the UK to 16.

Meanwhile, 168 Britons remain confined to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife after at least four guests were diagnosed with coronavirus.

The Minister of Health in Tenerife said around 130 of guests from 11 different countries will be able to leave the hotel if they arrived on Monday, after infected guests had already left.

But it is unclear whether anyone from the UK will be allowed to leave.

The Foreign Office has no current plans to repatriate Britons from the hotel but is keeping the situation under review.

Globally, Denmark was among those countries confirming their first cases on Thursday, while Saudi Arabia has stopped Muslim pilgrims entering to worship at the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

In Japan, all schools will close for several weeks, while US experts have reported the first case of unknown origin, which suggests the virus is spreading there.

In China, where the virus originated, 78,497 cases have been reported, including 2,744 deaths.

After Brazil confirmed Latin America’s first case on Wednesday, the virus has reached every continent except Antarctica.

World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, told a press conference in Geneva on Thursday that coronavirus has the potential to become a global pandemic but this stage had not been reached.

Public health advice remains to wash hands with soap, not rub the face and maintain a distance from people who are coughing and sneezing, he said.

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