Britons confined to a hotel in Tenerife over coronavirus will not be flown home until next month, unless they have tested negative, airline Jet2 has said.

It is understood travellers booked with Jet2 received messages saying it would not fly them to the UK until 10 March.

It comes after three more people were diagnosed with the virus in the UK on Thursday, including Northern Ireland’s first confirmed case.

That patient had travelled from northern Italy via Dublin.

Northern Ireland’s chief medical officer said “robust infection control measures” were in place.

On Thursday, health officials confirmed two new cases of the virus in England, who contracted the virus while they were in northern Italy and Tenerife.

It means 16 people have tested positive in the UK since the virus outbreak began in China in December.

Experts have warned of school closures and the cancellation of major sporting events, concerts and festivals in the UK in a bid to stop the spread of the virus, which causes Covid-19.

England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, said transmission of the virus between people in the UK was “just a matter of time”.

He said if the outbreak intensifies, it may be necessary to close schools and stop mass gatherings of people for “quite a long period of time, probably more than two months”.

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The World Health Organization also warned that the outbreak had reached a “decisive point” and had “pandemic potential”.

Italy has seen at least 650 cases of coronavirus and 15 deaths, according to local authorities.

Meanwhile, British cyclists Chris Froome and Adam Yates are being tested for the virus after two Italian “staff members” tested positive during the UAE Tour, which has since been called off.

“It’s a shame that the UAE Tour has been cancelled but public health must come first,” Froome said in a tweet.

What’s happening in Tenerife?

Some 168 Britons are among 700 guests who remain in the Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife after at least four guests, including an Italian doctor, were diagnosed with coronavirus.

On Thursday, the Canary Islands minister of health said a group of 130 low-risk guests – including around 50 British nationals – would be able to leave because they arrived on Monday and did not come into contact with the four Italians who tested positive.

However, airline Jet2 has said it will not fly any passengers who have been staying at the hotel home until they have completed two weeks in quarantine, or tested negative for the illness.

Lara Pennington, who is quarantined in the hotel with her family, told BBC Breakfast she was concerned that other Britons there were not taking isolation seriously enough.