Coronavirus tests on 14 people in the UK have come back negative, according to the chief medical officer.

This follows the government's emergency cabinet meeting which met to discuss the outbreak. British prime minister Boris Johnson was not in attendance but ministers from the Home Office, Foreign Office, and transport, education and communities departments were all present.

The UK Foreign Office is current advising against all but essential travel to Wuhan city and Hubei Province. The city itself has closed all transport hubs including airports, railway and bus stations. 

Cases of the new coronavirus are likely to continue to rise in China and it is too soon to evaluate its severity, a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. 

"The focus is not so much on the [case] numbers, which we know will go up," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a Geneva news briefing. 

Jasarevic added: "It's still too early to draw conclusions on how severe the virus is." 

 

UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Thursday that "there is an increased risk that cases may arise in this country." But he also said: "We are well prepared and equipped to deal with them."

The WHO and its network of experts may look into treatments for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) for potential use against the new coronavirus. 

A second case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in the U.S. after a woman was found to have contracted it. She is in her 60s and is being treated in a Chicago hospital where she is reportedly doing well.

There are nearly 900 confirmed global cases of the virus and 26 people have died from it in China. 

According to Public Health Wales, one person was tested last week and cleared. Downing Street said four of the five people being tested in Scotland were likely to be Chinese. 

Another man was being treated in Belfast for symptoms similar to those of the virus. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said: "These measures are purely precautionary and nobody has tested positive."