The British government announced on Monday that it will spend an extra 12 billion pounds on the prevention of new coronavirus (nv) in its 2020 budget to help the economy survive the outbreak.

Rishi Sunak, the new finance minister, told the house of Commons that more than £600bn would be spent on roads, railways, housing and broadband projects over the next five years, fulfilling an election promise by the conservatives to boost growth outside London and in the south-east.

Of the £30bn extra cost, £12bn will be earmarked for preventing new coronavirus, with at least £5bn going to the national health service.

Mr Sunak was promoted to finance minister four weeks ago. To deal with the new virus, the government's financial plans have had to be hastily redrawn. Mr Sunak warned MPS of a "significant" but temporary disruption to the UK economy as the new coronavirus outbreak continued to spread rapidly and that "we will get through this together". "We are doing everything we can to keep the country and its people healthy and financially secure."

The office for budget responsibility (OBR) said the extra spending was the biggest increase since 1992.

The leader of the main opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, said he welcomed many measures to stop the impact of the new coronavirus. But the extra money for the NHS was "too little, too late". After years of funding cuts, Britain's public services are in crisis.

The total number of confirmed cases of new coronavirus in the UK was 460, with 87 new cases added on the same day, setting a new record.