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It has yet to be decided who will pay volunteers’ wages and Mr Hancock will thrash details out with business chiefs.
The Health Secretary spoke as it emerged the Government could be put on lockdown over the virus threat, with civil servants ordered to work from home.
We are currently still within the “contain” phase of Whitehall’s strategy to combat the disease – but are expected to enter the “delay” phase this week.
That is when emergency measures will be fast-tracked through Parliament.
The final phase will be “mitigate”, arrived at when our chief medical officers confirm that we are in the clutches of a full-blown pandemic. A source said Whitehall chiefs discussed the idea of shutting offices at that point, so most of the 430,000-strong team of civil servants will work remotely.
The mitigate phase would also see magistrates conduct proceedings via video links and doctors and nurses being called out of retirement.
Any emergency powers brought in will be available for the next two years before running out.
A Whitehall lockdown could trigger similar moves by businesses across the
Chinese state media reported the first known death from an illness caused by the virus, which had infected dozens of people. The 61-year-old man who died was a regular customer at the market in Wuhan, where the illness is thought to have originated.
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land, some of which have already sent staff home after cases were confirmed. Facebook said it would be closing three London offices after a worker based in Singapore tested positive for Covid-19 after visiting the sites late last month.
Workers were also sent home from Techhub’s co-working site in the capital, which can house as many as 400 companies, on Friday. It came a day
after more than a thousand
The first confirmed cases outside mainland China occurred in Japan, South Korea and Thailand, according to the World Health Organization’s first situation report.
The Chinese authorities closed off Wuhan by cancelling planes and trains leaving the city.
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A “public health emergency of international concern” was officially declared by the WHO. workers in Canary Wharf, East London, were evacuated or told to work from home.
S&P Global and HSBC both told staff to stay away from offices.
Last week 500 more NHS 111 responders were trained to deal with extra calls.
Ministers from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will meet sports bodies tomorrow to discuss whether events should be held behind
closed doors. And
The first coronavirus death was reported outside China.
A 44-year-old man in the Philippines died, of the infection, officials said. By this point, the more than 360 people had died.