New breakthrough coronavirus research shows how outbreak could be controlled

Meanwhile, Richard Gleave, Deputy Chief Executive of Public Health England, has said that there will be a national recruitment of around 18,000 staff in the UK to carry out “phone-based” contact tracing of confirmed cases and their contacts.

He made the statement in a letter to the Directors of Public Health, in which he said: “Contact tracing is core [sic] public health endeavour and in an unprecedented situation as this pandemic, this needs a co-ordinated national, regional and local response.”

Mr Gleave said PHE was exploring how it could link community support services with people who are required to self-isolate.

As well as web and phone-based contact tracing, the government has also released the NHS CV19 app, which automatically records the distance between app users.