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Coronavirus: 83 people allowed home after showing no signs of coronavirus

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Coronavirus: Your questions answered by Dr Chris Van Tulleken from Operation Ouch

The 83 people who have been held in a hospital in the Wirral will be allowed to go home on Thursday after tests confirmed they did not have the coronavirus.

They have spent two weeks in quarantine - staying in temporary accommodation in the Arrowe Park Hospital in the North West of England after they travelled to the UK from China, where the coronavirus originated.

Quarantine is when a person is kept in a closed-off area for a period of time, to protect other people from being infected with disease.

The people have all been tested on a number of occasions during their stay to make sure they don't have the virus and all 83 are healthy and well.

There have been nine cases confirmed in the UK and several British people have been diagnosed in other parts of the world.

Image source, Getty Images
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Scientists are still working on finding a vaccine for coronavirus

What is happening around the world?

Meanwhile in China, there has been an increase in the number of new cases confirmed - this is because doctors have started using a different method of diagnosing people.

The medical professionals in the Hubei province are now using results of computerised tomography (CT) scans that show infected lungs, alongside tests on samples from people collected by mouth swabs, for example.

This means that more people showing symptoms of the virus will receive the care they need sooner.

Image source, Judith Perera-Lee
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Judith Perera-Lee says some of her friends and relatives are medical workers

People in Singapore are thanking healthcare workers on the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak with handwritten notes for Valentine's Day.

Some people, including schoolchildren, have been using social media to share their messages of love and support, to help boost the morale of medical professionals.

Image source, Felicia Lim
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"You are the true heroes for tomorrow's Singapore," wrote Felicia Lim