Around 1,500 people who came to Britain from the Chinese epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic in the past two weeks must put themselves in isolation, the UK health minister said on Monday.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said authorities "cannot be 100 percent certain" that the virus cannot spread from a person who exhibits no flu-like symptoms.
"From today, we are therefore asking anyone in the UK who has returned from Wuhan in the last 14 days to self-isolate," Hancock told a parliamentary hearing.
"Do not leave home until you have been given advice by a clinician."
Hancock said health officials continued to trace people who have arrived in the UK from Wuhan.
"Having eliminated those who we know have since left the country, there are 1,460 people we are seeking to locate." Britain has not recorded any confirmed cases of the disease.
The Foreign Office said Monday it was "working to make an option available for British nationals to leave (Wuhan's) Hubei province due to the heavy travel restrictions and increased difficulty of accessing consular or medical assistance".
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