Third person with coronavirus in UK thought to have caught illness in Singapore

The third person to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK is believed to have caught the illness in Singapore.

The latest diagnosis comes as as health experts issued a new warning to travellers arriving from several Asian countries.

It has been reported that the third patient is a middle aged British man and is understood to be the first UK national to contract the disease.

Health officials are not believed to be “contact tracing” people on any Asia-UK flight the latest sufferer may have travelled on.

Two other patients are still being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases centre in Newcastle.

The Government is now urging travellers from countries including Thailand, Singapore, Japan and South Korea to self-isolate if they begin to feel unwell.

Other countries on the list are Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Macau, as well as mainland China.

The warning, posted on the Government website, says: “These countries have been identified because of the volume of air travel from affected areas, understanding of other travel routes and number of reported cases. This list will be kept under review.”

Until Thursday, this advice only related to people travelling from Wuhan in China.

The UK Foreign Office has advised Britons in China to leave if they are able to.

The two other patients are still being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary infectious diseases centre in Newcastle.

One is a student at the University of York, while the other is a family member.

They had travelled from China in the days before their diagnosis.

The group are spending 14 days in isolation but will be released next week as long as they remain symptom-free.

Meanwhile, Japanese authorities say 41 new cases of the coronavirus have been discovered on a quarantined cruise ship near Yokohama.

There are 78 people with British passports – including crew – on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, sources told the PA news agency.

“It’s going to be like a floating prison,” passenger David Abel lamented on Facebook.

He had set out on a 50th wedding anniversary luxury cruise but found himself in his cabin, eating a “lettuce sandwich with some chicken inside.”

There are no plans to fly anyone from the ship and back to the UK at the moment.

PA understands that passengers are unable to leave the ship but are not in quarantine and can move around freely on board.

The global death toll from coronavirus rose to 636 on Friday, with the number of confirmed cases rising to 31,161. Some 260 cases have been recorded outside China.

It emerged on Thursday that the Chinese doctor sanctioned by the authorities for issuing an early warning about the coronavirus has died from the illness.

The Wuhan Central Hospital said on its social media account that Dr Li Wenliang, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist, was “unfortunately infected during the fight against the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus infection”.

Mr Li was reprimanded by local police for “spreading rumours” about the illness in late December, according to news reports.

The World Health Organisation tweeted: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did” on the virus.

Meanwhile, a newborn baby has become the youngest to be diagnosed with the disease.

Only a handful of children have come down with the new coronavirus, which has been most severe in older people.