No confirmed cases of Coronavirus have been reported in Northumberland, amid news of a person in Newcastle becoming the first to contract the disease in the North-East.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said on Wednesday it had not dealt with any confirmed cases.

On Wednesday, Public Health England North East and Newcastle City Council revealed a person in Newcastle had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, while there were two confirmed cases in Carlisle reported this week.

The two people in Carlisle had recently returned from northern Italy.

Nationally there had been 85 confirmed cases as of 2pm on Wednesday.

This week, Downing Street issued a statement on the Government’s strategy for containing the virus, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson said was likely to affect a significant number of people in the UK in coming weeks.

He said employees diagnosed with the coronavirus would be able to claim statutory sick pay from day one. Currently, staff are only able to claim after three days.