Explainer

Coronavirus: How COVID-19 spread across the whole UK

By Alice Udale-Smith, news reporter and Carmen Aguilar-Garcia, data journalist

Monday 16 March 2020 15:25, UK

COVID-19 has now spread across the entire UK
Image: COVID-19 has now spread across the entire UK
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In the past week COVID-19 has spread across the whole of the United Kingdom, with cases reported in all but a few places.

Scroll through the map below to see how far it has spread.

Key Points

  • Mass gatherings in the UK will be banned from next week under plans being drawn up by ministers
  • The London Marathon is among a number of sporting events cancelled
  • Anyone entering New Zealand will have to self-isolate for 14 days
  • US President Donald Trump has declared the outbreak a national emergency
  • More than 145,000 cases and almost 5,500 deaths have been declared worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University
  • Italy recorded 250 cases in a day, bringing its total to almost 18,000
The first person to become infected in the UK, instead of abroad, was a man from Haslemere. It's not known how he came into contact with the disease. A London underground driver, who was based at a North Greenwich depot, has also tested positive for the virus after returning from Vietnam. Health Minister Nadine Dorries has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and other Westminster staff and politicians are in self-isolation after meeting her. Among the confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Hertfordshire is a paramedic with the East of England Ambulance Service. Five students at the University of Oxford have also tested positive for the disease, according to Public Health England. A police officer in South Wales became infected with the virus, causing his police station to be temporarily shut while it was deep-cleaned. A surgeon and another staff member at the Aintree University Hospital in Merseyside have been diagnosed with the virus. A postgraduate student at Queen’s University in Belfast tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from North Italy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Newcastle has shut until the end of March after a congregation member tested positive. The disease has even reached the far north of Scotland, with at least six confirmed cases in the Shetland Islands.

Where is the outbreak worst?

Unsurprisingly, given it is the UK's largest city, London has the highest number of coronavirus cases in England.

In particular the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster and Camden have the highest concentration of incidents.

Counties such as Hertfordshire, Devon and Oxfordshire have also all had more than a dozen confirmed cases each.

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The misinformation outbreak

Only a few areas such as Norfolk, Northumberland, Dorset and Bath had not reported any cases before authorities announced the UK was moving into the "delay phase" of its response.

In Scotland cases have centred on the areas around Edinburgh and Glasgow while Wales and Northern Ireland have had their own outbreaks.

The Scottish government has provided figures broken down by health authority, rather than local authority.

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