Coronavirus victims will be forcibly quarantined under new government powers as the health secretary today declared the outbreak a 'serious and imminent threat' to the British public.

The Department of Health said people infected with the virus will be kept in quarantine for their own safety and forced into isolation if they pose a threat to public health.  

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the new measures 'are considered as an effective means of delaying or preventing further transmission of the virus.'

A spokesman for the DoH said this morning: 'Our infection control procedures are world leading and the NHS is well prepared to deal with novel coronavirus.

'We are strengthening our regulations so we can keep individuals in supported isolation for their own safety and if public health professionals consider they may be at risk of spreading the virus to other members of the public.

'This measure will rightly make it easier for health professionals to help keep people safe across the country.'

It comes after a British man who caught coronavirus in Singapore appears to be linked to at least seven other confirmed cases in England, France and Spain.