THE chief medical officers for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have written

to doctors warning that coronavirus will put healthcare under “extreme pressure”.

This will, it is feared, “inevitably be exacerbated by staff shortage due to sickness or caring responsibilities”.

It urges healthcare professionals to be “flexible in what they do”, warning that it may “entail working in unfamiliar circumstances or surroundings, or working in clinical areas outside of their usual practice for the benefit of patients and the population as a whole”.

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price called for “mass gatherings” to be cancelled – including Wales’s Six Nations rugby match against Scotland on Saturday.

He also suggested that “serious consideration” should be given to schools breaking up early before the scheduled Easter holiday.

“All mass gatherings and events should be postponed or cancelled with immediate effect – that would mean no indoor gatherings larger than 100 and no outdoor gathering larger than 500,” he said.

The Wales v Scotland game in Cardiff should be pushed back to a later date, he said.

The number of cases of coronavirus in Scotland has risen to 60, up from 36 on Wednesday.

The Scottish Government said latest daily figures showed that 2892 tests have been carried out so far, with 2832 tests confirmed negative.

There are 11 confirmed cases in the Lothian area and 10 in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, with seven each in Grampian and Lanarkshire.

Six cases have been confirmed in Shetland, six in Forth Valley, four each in Tayside and Ayrshire and Arran, with three cases in Fife and two in the Borders.