Coronavirus quarantine pods installed at UK hospital A&E departments

The Government has ordered hospitals to install coronavirus quarantine pods.

Units have already been set up outside Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton - the epicentre of the outbreak in Britain.

Pods have also appeared at University Hospital of North Tees, University Hospital Hartlepool and Dorset County Hospital.

Julie Lane, chief nurse at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, said the assessment cabins were just a precaution in case any suspected coronavirus patients visit the hospital.

A sign on one of the pods at Dorset County Hospital says: "If you are told you need to be tested, stay in the pod until somebody comes to get you.

Coronavirus pods have been set up at Dorset County Hospital (Getty Images)

"If you are told you do not need further tests, you are free to go."

Specific response teams will check patients in the pods, asking them about their recent travel history and interactions to figure out the likelihood of infection, Mail Online reports.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust said the pods are a government requirement at all hospitals.

Cleaners were sent into County Oak Medical Centre, in Brighton, after a doctor was diagnosed with coronavirus (Steve Reigate)

Patients have been told to stay in the pods and wait for a doctor to come to them (Getty Images)

The trust said anyone who thinks they have coronavirus should ring 111 , instead of going to a hospital or their GP.

Brighton became the centre of coronavirus cases in the UK after Steve Walsh, from Hove, infected Brighton GP Catriona Greenwood with the disease.

Another unnamed doctor in Sussex was also diagnosed with the disease.

Staff at Worthing Hospital received a memo on Tuesday telling them that a member of staff working in the A&E department had been diagnosed with the virus

The isolation units are intended to stem the outbreak (Getty Images)

Brighton has become the centre of the outbreak in the UK (Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)

Health Minister Matt Hancock revealed new measures in recent days that give the government additional powers to fight the spread of the virus.

A statement from the health ministry said: "In accordance with Regulation 3, the Secretary of State declares that the incidence or transmission of novel coronavirus constitutes a serious and imminent threat to public health.

"The measures outlined in these regulations are considered as an effective means of delaying or preventing further transmission of the virus."

Hospitals have been told to install the pods (Getty Images)

The Government recently announced new quarantine powers (Getty Images)

Regulation 3 refers to the control of patient information relating to 'communicable diseases' - diseases that can spread from one person to another.

It also declared Wuhan and Hubei province in China as an "infected area".

Under new measures, the Department of Health said people with coronavirus can now be forcibly quarantined and will not be free to leave, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat to public health.

The doctors are said to have worked in four different locations in East and West Sussex - an A&E department, a nursing home and two GP practices.

They are now in quarantine and the surgeries in Brighton have reopened following a deep clean.

However, a search is now under way to find the 12 patients who came into contact with the pair, the BBC has reported.