By Staff, Agencies Coronavirus will soon become a pandemic, Australia’s prime minister has warned, as new cases emerged in Denmark and Estonia in people who had travelled from Italy and Iran.

“There is every indication that the world will soon enter a pandemic phase,” Scott Morrison told reporters on Thursday. More than 2,800 people have now been killed by the virus around the world, and more than 82,000 infected.

Within Europe, Italy has seen the most infections at 453, according to Johns Hopkins University, with 27 in Germany, 18 in France, 13 in Spain and 15 in the UK In Britain the NHS fears that its weakest patients could be denied lifesaving care if the virus overwhelms hospitals.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has banned foreigners from entering – including religious pilgrims hoping to visit Mecca, Islam’s holiest site – and Japan has logged its first case of a patient who had previously recovered testing positive for a second time.

US President Donald Trump courted controversy by contradicting his own health experts on the risk posed to the US, while his health secretary warned he will not be able to guarantee any coronavirus vaccine will be affordable to everyone