Mark Carney warned of a blow to Britain’s economy today as coronavirus panic sent the FTSE 100 plunging by about £200 billion in a week — and two more cases were confirmed in London and another in Wales.

The Bank of England governor stressed the UK economy was “very open” and would be “impacted” by a slowdown in global growth. He issued his warning as:

  • Chief medical officers announced two new London cases of Covid-19 in people who had travelled from Iran, and the first case in Wales. The UK total now stands at 19.
  • In a sign of deepening concerns, Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of Whitehall’s Cobra emergency committee on Monday. He also visited Kettering hospital during a shift last night and saw coronavirus preparations.
  • FTSE 100 shares were on course to have lost more than £200 billion in a week, which would be the worst since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008. It was down 3.9 per cent mid-morning, wiping about £66 billion off the value of UK blue chip shares, with similar falls in markets in Frankfurt, Paris and Asia.
  • The first case was confirmed in sub-Saharan Africa, in Nigeria. Health chiefs fear the virus could spread rapidly in highly populated countries with less developed health care systems.

US intelligence was reported to be monitoring the outbreak in Iran which health chiefs believe is being hugely under-reported. Thirty-four people have died from the infection, with 388 cases, according to official figures.

South Korea reported 571 new infections, bringing the total to 2,337, the most outside China, with 13 deaths.

Italy has confirmed 650 infections and 17 deaths.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt warned that “hundreds of thousands of lives could depend” on stopping the disease spiralling out of control in the UK to infect 70 per cent of the population, a possible worst case scenario, which he stressed could be avoided with economic and social “trade-offs”.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson appealed to headteachers not to close schools, insisting they were “safe” at the moment to stay open.

Behavioural scientists were working on the best measures which the public will follow to limit the virus’s impact.

In Switzerland, all events involving more than 1,000 people were banned.

Hopes that the epidemic that started in China late last year would be over in months, and that economic activity would quickly return to normal, have been shattered as the number of cases has spiralled, with a growing economic impact wiping £3.8 trillion off the value of shares globally.

“What we are picking up with some of our bigger companies and companies around the world is that supply chains... are getting a little tight. That’s lower activity,” Mr Carney told Sky News. “There’s less tourism — as you can see on our streets here in the UK. That’s lower activity as well.

“We would expect world growth would be lower than it otherwise would be, and that has a knock-on effect on the UK.

“We’re not picking that up yet at all in the European and UK economic indicators, but if the world is slower than the UK, a very open economy, will have an impact.” Money market traders now see a 50 per cent probability that the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee will cut interest rates from 0.75 per cent to 0.5 per cent in response to the crisis, with education minister Nick Gibb suggesting Chancellor Rishi Sunak may also take action in the Budget on March 11 to stop the economy stalling.

Mr Hunt, now chairman of the Commons health and social care committee, called on the Government to outline more of the measures which could be needed to stop the spread of the virus which he stressed had seemingly peaked in China with less than five per cent of the population in Wuhan, where the outbreak started, becoming infected.

“Our worst case scenario is perhaps 70 per cent of the population becoming infected,” he explained.

“There is a massive difference, hundreds of thousands of lives could depend on whether we can keep the infection levels down below 10/five per cent. If we can do that there will be social and economic consequences. That is why we need to look at what those trade-offs might be.”

England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty has warned it is “just a matter of time” until coronavirus spreads in the UK and that there could be a “social cost” if the virus intensifies, including school closures for more than two months. Sporting events could also be cancelled, as well as other measures to limit social contact.

Concerns were rising over how the NHS would cope with a major outbreak, with one GP saying there was already a wait of two-and-a-half hours to use the only testing “pod” at a hospital.

London Ambulance frontline medics said vehicles were lying empty due to restrictions on overtime shifts despite the service receiving 350 calls an hour yesterday, with winter pressures exacerbated by calls about coronavirus.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “Our overtime is constantly reviewed based on our forecast demand to ensure we meet the needs of patients across London.

“We have reduced the overtime available across the Trust due to increased staff retention. We are now seeing the lowest number of vacancies we have seen for a number of years so we are better equipped to cover shifts without the need to offer overtime.”

Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, said: “Whilst the risk for any one of us needing complex medical care will be low, the overall numbers of people with complications of Covid-19 are likely to be a significant challenge for the NHS to manage.”

China reported 327 new cases, the lowest since January 23, taking its tally to more than 78,800 cases with almost 2,800 deaths.