UK AUTHORITIES HAVE confirmed that a case of the coronavirus has been detected in London. 

The UK’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said this is their ninth confirmed case. 

He said: “One further patient in England has tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total number of cases in the UK to nine.

“This virus was passed on in China and the patient has now been transferred to a specialist NHS centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ in London.”

Earlier today, the UN health agency cautioned it was “way too early” to say whether COVID-19 might have peaked or when it might end, following a drop in the number of new cases.

“I think it’s way too early to try to predict the beginning, the middle or the end of this epidemic right now,” Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies programme, told reporters.

Meanwhile, the quarantine of 83 people being held in Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, is expected to be lifted tomorrow amid reports they have all tested negative for the covid-19 strain of the coronavirus.

All of those in quarantine were flown back from China and taken directly to the hospital after arriving in the UK on January 31.

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A spokesman for the UK’s Department of Health said the “quarantine is expected to end tomorrow” but declined to comment on the test results of the patients.

A total of 65 people have been tested in Ireland for the illness. All those tests have come back negative. 

With reporting by PA