UK 'highly likely' to have cases of coronavirus, health boss says

Cases of new coronavirus in the United Kingdom are highly likely, one of the country's top health bosses said on Friday. "I think it's highly likely that we will have cases in the UK," Professor Paul Cosford, emeritus medical director of Public Health England, told the BBC.

"We do have a whole range of plans ready to go when that is the case and these are being implemented now," Cosford said. The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday declared the new coronavirus an emergency for China but stopped short of declaring the epidemic of international concern.