Three coronavirus "hot spots" have been identified in the UK as health officials fear many thousands will become infected across the country.
Public Health England (PHE) has released details about where exactly the cases are and how rapidly it is spread in the UK.
And those living in north London, Torbay, Devon and parts of Hampshire are feared to be most susceptible at the moment. These areas have had the most confirmed cases in the UK.
Six people have died so far after being diagnosed with Covid-19 in the UK, reports Devon Live .
However, coronavirus has now been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.
For updates on the coronavirus outbreak, read our live blog
PHE's useful tool shows that, of 9am on March 10, 2020, there were 91 cases confirmed in the capital.
A further 51 had been recorded in the southeast of England, and 41 people had been infected in the southwest.
There had been some 37 cases recorded in the northwest of England. A further 36 were recorded across the Midlands.
As a result, the NHS in England will "ramp up" testing facilities so 10,000 more coronavirus tests can be performed each day.
Professor Dame Sue Hill, NHS chief scientific officer, said: “The NHS is ramping up the number of testing centres across the country, to help people get care quickly or have their mind put at ease.
“England’s NHS has world-leading expertise and every hospital across the country, and the healthcare professionals who run them, are now actively planning to respond flexibly to manage new demand.
“The public can help us to help the country to stay safe by practising good hygiene and washing their hands more often, for at least 20 seconds.”
Now local hospital labs will join specialist services, including those already provided by PHE, in being able to accurately detect the presence of the new virus.
Professor Sharon Peacock, director of the National Infection Service at Public Health England, added: “Wider testing is important as it allows us to continue to meet demand as the number of people being tested increases in the coming weeks. This will ensure that PHE and the NHS have the most robust system possible to understand what is happening with the virus.
“PHE has continued to process the vast majority of test results within 24 hours of receiving the sample in a PHE laboratory and returning them to NHS colleagues and will continue to do so.”
Testing was initially only conducted at PHE specialist labs, with the next phase of the rollout seeing 10 NHS microbiology services called to step up doubling the number of daily tests.
Further testing will be conducted by some NHS pathology services as the diagnostic programme rolls out.
