If you're just tuning into our live coverage now, here is a quick round-up of the latest coronavirus developments in the UK, after the total number of cases rose to 15.

• The government is set to launch a public information campaign focusing on hygiene and prevention
• In Tenerife, 168 Britons have been told to isolate themselves at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel
• At least eight UK schools have closed while others - including the one attended by Prince George - have sent pupils home amid fears they may have been exposed to the virus during half-term trips to northern Italy
• More than 7,000 people in the UK have been tested. Of the 15 diagnosed with Covid-19, eight have been discharged from hospital

• The Foreign Office is warning against all but essential travel to 11 quarantined towns in Italy, external, and the Department for Health says anyone returning from them must call the NHS 111 helpline and self-isolate, external

• People who have returned from Iran and parts of South Korea since 19 February, and from Hubei province in China in the past two weeks, are also advised to call the helpline, stay indoors and avoid contact with other people

Some further detail on the latest two people to be diagnosed with Covid-19 in the UK.

The BBC understands that one person - who contracted the virus in Tenerife - is from Derbyshire, and that a school in the county has closed because of the case.

It is not clear which part of the UK the other person is from but they contracted it in Italy.

Ministers have said they expect more cases to emerge.

Image source, CDC

A bizarre claim that men are being warned to shave their beards to protect against coronavirus has been doing the rounds on social media.

It stems from an infographic, issued by America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), showing which facial hair styles are incompatible with filtering facepiece respirators.

Sections of the media and social media have seized upon the infographic as new official advice that men with certain beards should shave them off to avoid catching the virus.

The problem is that the CDC's graphic was not issued in relation to this coronavirus outbreak. In fact is was published way back in 2017 as part of a blog aimed at those who wear respirators in the workplace., external

The blog explains: "Facial hair that lies along the sealing area of a respirator, such as beards, sideburns, or some mustaches, will interfere with respirators that rely on a tight face-piece seal to achieve maximum protection."

The blog's timing aside, many of the face masks people have been wearing to protect against the coronavirus do not have a tight seal.

Experts have also questioned how effective face masks are in protecting against the virus in the first place.

President Emmanuel Macron says that France is preparing for a jump in the number of cases.

"We are facing a crisis, an epidemic, that is coming," he said while visiting a hospital in Paris where the first French national with coronavirus died on Tuesday.

"We are going to have to deal with it as best we can," he added.

France has 18 confirmed cases, with two deaths including a Chinese tourist who was visiting. On Wednesday some public events were cancelled, including the last day of a major carnival in Nice on Saturday.

Image source, AFP

Image source, Reuters

Major outbreaks of the coronavirus were detected in both Italy and Iran in the past few days while cases in South Korea have surged, making that one of the worst-affected countries.

Clearly this is no longer a problem just in China, with a small number of exported cases, and many people are asking if the virus is about to become a pandemic and whether containing is still possible.

You can read more here.

We reported earlier that the death toll in Iran was 22. The health ministry has just announced that has increased to 26.

It also announced a big jump in the number of cases - with 106 confirmed in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 245.

Iran is one of the epicentres of new infections. Officials earlier this week expressed doubts over the true number of cases reported in Iran.

Reality Check: How is Iran responding to the outbreak?

There are concerns about how Indonesia is testing for the coronavirus. So far the country has not reported any Covid-19 infections, despite its close proximity and links to China.

"There's a ton of inter-connectivity between China and Indonesia, and if we look at all the other countries in the neighbourhood, everyone is reporting cases," Dr Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease consultant and scientist at the University of Toronto, in Canada, told the BBC.

"They [Indonesia] have only recently developed the capacity to detect these cases and I think if we look at a map and look at travel patterns and where this might be amplified, that might be one of the regions that we look at."

Two people in the country have died with symptoms similar to coronavirus, reports the Straits Times, external. But no-one has tested positive for the new virus.

There's been a lot of updates - with new cases confirmed in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. So here's a round-up of the latest:

• Saudi Arabia has banned foreigners from entering the country for pilgrimages as well as tourists from countries where the coronavirus has spread
• Death toll rises to 22 in Iran
• The UK announced two more cases, bringing the total to 15
• European countries declare more infections, including the first case in Romania

• Japan plans to close all schools from 2 March in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus
• There are doubts whether the annual Hajj pilgrimage - a major event for Muslims globally - will go ahead in July and August in Saudi Arabia
• More countries are putting emergency plans in place, including Australia

Celia Hatton
BBC Asia Pacific Regional Editor

Chinese health officials say that about 14% of patients in Guangdong province who had the coronavirus but recovered and were discharged from hospital have tested positive for the virus again.

Health officials admit they're still learning about the new coronavirus and how it operates within the human body.

The same phenomenon has been reported in Japan, when a woman in her 40s who had recovered and tested negative for the virus then tested positive more than three weeks later.

The authorities in both countries have pledged to continue tracking former patients, even after they've been discharged from hospital.

The chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee has become the third high-profile politician in the country to contract the virus.

"My corona test has come out positive... there is nothing to worry about. I am in quarantine now. God willing our people will defeat the corona," Mojtaba Zolnour said.

Iran's deputy health minister and an MP have also tested positive.

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has called for all schools to close from 2 March for several weeks.

With such a rush of new developments, it's worth us looking back at where and when this all started:

• 31 December: China alerts the World Health Organization to several cases of unusual pneumonia in the city of Wuhan
• 7 January: Chinese authorities identify a new type of coronavirus
• 13 January: The WHO reports a case in Thailand, the first outside of China
• 30 January: The WHO declares the outbreak a global emergency as the death toll in China jumps to 170
• 2 February: The Philippines reports the first death outside China, a Chinese man from Wuhan
• 7 February: Li Wenliang, a doctor who tried to issue a warning about the coronavirus, dies
• 15 February: A Chinese tourist dies in France, the first death in Europe
• 11 February: The WHO announces that the disease caused by the virus would be called Covid-19
• 19 February: Iran reports two deaths - the first in the Middle East
• 26 February: The global death toll approaches 2,800 as 80,000 cases are recorded worldwide, with Brazil confirming the first case in Latin America

You can learn more about the global spread of Covid-19 in our visual guide to the outbreak.

As European countries report an increase in cases, a second person has been diagnosed with Covid-19 in Switzerland. A 28-year-old man is in hospital in Geneva with mild symptoms after attending an IT conference in Milan.

Geneva has cancelled its annual watch fair that attracts the world's leading watchmakers, scheduled to take place on 25-29 April.

Image source, AFP

Two more patients in England have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of UK cases to 15, the Department of Health has said., external

The virus was contracted in Italy and Tenerife and the patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres at the Royal Liverpool Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, London.

The number of deaths in Iran has increased from 19 to 22, Reuters quoted Iran's official news agency IRNA as saying. The total number of confirmed cases in Iran is now 141.

And in Kuwait the number of cases has risen from 25 to 43, the country's health ministry reported. All of these cases are in people who have returned from Iran.

Iran is one of the hotspots of coronavirus transmission, with many cases in South Asia and the Middle East traceable back to people who've returned recently from the country.

There’s been an update on a story we reported yesterday - it was about two nurses from Wuhan, China, writing a letter appealing for help from other medical workers around the world to help them “battle” the coronavirus outbreak.

In it, they described dire conditions in Wuhan, as health workers suffer from ill-health and the psychological impact of treating large numbers of infected patients.

But the letter has now been retracted from the medical journal , externalthat published it:

“We were informed by the authors of this correspondence that the account described therein was not a first-hand account, as the authors had claimed, and that they wished to withdraw the piece. We have therefore taken the decision to retract this Correspondence,” The Lancet wrote on its website.

The full circumstances behind the retraction aren’t currently known. Previously in China there has been censorship of people speaking negatively about the government's response to the virus.

Image source, Getty Images

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said Britons returning from quarantined Italian towns must self-isolate. But how does it work? Our correspondent Fergus Walsh explains all...

South Korea now has 1,766 confirmed cases of Covid-19 - up from 1,595 earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong has 92 cases - an increase of two.

The organisers of Geneva's international luxury watch trade show have cancelled the event.

"In view of the latest developments concerning the worldwide spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus... the decision has been taken to cancel the upcoming edition of Watches and Wonders Geneva," said organisers.

Romania has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, say local media reports. The patient reportedly came into contact with an Italian man who had recently visited Romania.