Boris Johnson calls emergency coronavirus meeting - for three days time

Boris Johnson has called an emergency Cobra meeting of government ministers to discuss the rapidly escalating global coronavirus crisis, to be held on Monday.

The meeting of senior officials will be the first attended by the prime minister since the virus emerged, with 19 people in the UK having contracted the illness so far.

Asked why the prime minister was taking the chair of Cobra for the first time, a Downing Street spokesman said: "If you look at the increased number of cases on mainland Europe, the prime minister is keen to chair Cobra to be sure that everything that can be done is being done."

Earlier on Friday, Dr Frank Atherton, the chief medical officer for Wales, confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the region, saying the patient had recently returned to Wales from northern Italy, where they contracted the virus.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman also said that the outbreak is "getting bigger", with the possibility that it will reach further countries, "if not all countries".

Mr Johnson was working in Downing Street on Friday and will be at his country residence Chequers over the weekend. The spokesman gave no explanation of why the Cobra meeting was not being held earlier, but said that so far during the outbreak there had been one meeting a week led by the health secretary Matt Hancock.

The prime minister last night visited Kettering Hospital in Northamptonshire to discuss preparations for possible coronavirus cases with senior clinicians.

Mr Johnson joined the night shift and stayed at the hospital from 11pm to 3am, spending time with staff in the accident and emergency department, intensive care unit and paediatrics ward, said Downing Street.

“Staff talked him through the processes in place for if there is a suspected case,” said the spokesman.

He said that, on top of Cobra sessions, there had been daily meetings during the coronavirus outbreak bringing together Public Health England, the Department of Health, the chief medical officer, chief scientific officer and other government departments. Mr Johnson had been kept updated throughout, he said.

George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, said the government “now needs to onto a ‘war footing’ with the coronavirus” and hold daily NHS press briefings, regular Corba sessions chaired by the prime minister and ministers on all major media shows.

“The public is fearful, wants information and needs to know their leaders have got a grip,” he added.

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth added: ““Our part-time prime minister needs to get a grip of this escalating situation quickly. It shouldn’t take another three days for this meeting to take place.

“People are understandably worried. Boris Johnson should drop his childish ban on ministers appearing on BBC radio programmes. The public deserves to hear what plans are in place to deal with the outbreak.”