Brits have been caught up as the global coronavirus outbreak grows.
School pupils have been sent home after going on ski trips to Northern Italy and holidaymakers are among 1,000 people trapped inside a Tenerife hotel after a guest fell ill with the disease.
Back home there are plans to shut public transport.
England’s health boss, Chris Whitty, said: “You need to look at school closures, reducing transport.”
Health bosses admitted on Tuesday they are considering advice to isolate entire families at home if one member feels unwell.
At least 10 schools sent pupils and staff home who had spent half-term on ski trips in Northern Italy.
Currently 50,000 people are in lockdown there as 229 people tested positive and 11 died.
The Foreign Office has advised against all but essential travel to the 10 small towns in Lombardy and one in Veneto, that are in isolation.
A briefing in Central London heard plans may be revealed next week on what would happen if coronavirus becomes a pandemic and the current containment strategy is abandoned.
This could mean tens of thousands of people off work, including medics already struggling to operate within the overstretched NHS.
Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, said: “We might want to look at things like should people stay at home with their families in that situation.
“There’s no secret there’s a variety of things you need to look at like school closures, reducing transport.”
Government advice is currently that school closures are not necessary.
Despite this Cransley School and Brine Leas Academy in Nantwich, Cheshire, are among those to shut their doors, after some students developed flu-like symptoms. All pupils at Penair School in Truro, Cornwall, were sent home and Salendine Nook High School in Huddersfield, West Yorks, sent 19 pupils and four staff members home.
Hall Cross Academy in Doncaster, South Yorks, told all staff and students on trips to self-isolate for 14 days as did Sandbach High School in Cheshire. Cardinal Heenan High School in Liverpool sent home pupils and staff who had been to Italy.
Three schools in Northern Ireland are affected.
In the Canary Islands, a British mum said her family’s stay at the four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace in South West Tenerife was a “holiday from hell”.
Around 1,000 residents had a letter posted under their door saying the hotel is “closed down” and they must remain in their rooms until further notice.
Police are standing guard outside the hotel and entrances and exits have been taped off to prevent guests from leaving.
Hannah Green, 27, from Hertfordshire, arrived at the hotel on Saturday with her boyfriend, and their one-year-old son. She said: “We woke up to a note under our door this morning saying that for health reasons not to leave our room.
“I called downstairs to reception as soon as I saw it and they wouldn’t tell us anything. We’ve had nothing from the hotel – no one has told us anything.” She said a sandstorm at the weekend confined them to their rooms.
“The sandstorm was the day after we arrived, Sunday, so we had to stay in the hotel then,” she said.
Channel 4 News journalist Jon Snow has gone into self-isolation after travelling to Iran. He said: “I’m not very good with my own company.” Neither he or his team have shown any symptoms.
Elsewhere, a woman has been diagnosed in Barcelona, the first case confirmed on the Spanish mainland and Iran’s deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi has tested positive for the disease, as the country struggles to contain an outbreak that has killed 15.
Officials in Milan have urged people not to panic-buy as the spread of the virus sparked a rush to supermarkets.
More than 80,000 cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease have been reported worldwide since it emerged late last year. About 2,700 patients have died – the vast majority in China.
Hospitals will now started testing any patients with flu-like symptoms.
Until now only those who had recently travelled to an affected region were being tested, with only nine people diagnosed after 6,536 tests.
Football matches, church services and large gatherings could be called off if coronavirus breaks out in the UK.
Dr Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, said: “Delaying the spread would mean stopping people coming together in large groups.”
The government confirmed Heathrow Ariel Hotel had been designated an isolation facility for quarantine alongside Arrowe Park Hospital, Merseyside, and Kents Hill Park in Milton Keynes.
