AUTHORITIES should be more communicative about coronavirus in the city, according to MP Peter Kyle.

The Hove and Portslade representative said he has daily, sometimes hourly updates, on the situation from Department for Health ministers. 

But he said the health authorities should be more "communicative" with the public about the disease, now officially named Covid-19.

He said he has been trying to share as much information as possible with local and national journalists on radio, TV and newspapers.

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Adding: “Partly the reason why I have had to do so much communicating is because others have not been doing enough of it.

“I wish public health officials were more communicative.” 

The comments come as Steve Walsh, the Hove man who caught the virus in Singapore, was released from a London hospital to return home.

Mr Kyle said: “Our city is having a real shock. 

“A global crisis has made its way into our local community and its making us all really anxious.

“Of the five cases in Brighton and Hove, all of them caught it in another county.

“The first person known to have contracted the coronavirus from Brighton and Hove has fully recovered.

“The remaining people we know to have the virus are doing well.”

According to the Labour representative, it is “people, not places” which causes the spread of the virus.

He said: “We know with high degree of certainty that you need to be in very close proximity of someone with the virus for about 15 minutes or when they sneeze. 

“To be specific, droplets of salvia containing the virus need to pass directly from one mouth to the other.”

Across the city, people including teachers and nurses have put themselves into “self-isolation” in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. 

A new coronavirus case in London was confirmed this evening. 

The last confirmed case in Brighton was announced on Monday.