UK will have authority to force people to quarantine: Health secretary

The virus has infected more than 150,000 people around the world and has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people globally

The European country of Britain will have the authority to force people to quarantine if required which is a part of the country's strategy to fight coronavirus, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC on Sunday.

"We are going to take the powers to make sure that we can quarantine people if they are a risk to public health," he said. "I doubt we will need to use it very much because people are being very responsible and people need to be responsible."

COVID-19 crisis

Coronavirus
Peng Zhiyong (C), head of the department of critical care medicine of Zhongnan Hospital, performs diagnosis on a patient with his colleagues in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Jan. 24, 2020. Central China's Hubei province reported 105 new confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and seven new deaths on Thursday, the provincial health authorities announced Friday. (Xinhua/Xiong Qi/IANS) IANS

The coronavirus outbreak has caused massive devastation around the world. The virus has infected more than 150,000 people worldwide and has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people globally. The COVID-19 originated from the Chinese city in Wuhan of Hubei province.

The WHO recently described it as a pandemic and in the coming days, the virus can infect more people around the world. The new epicentre of the virus according to the WHO is in Europe.

(With agency inputs)

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