SCHOOLS in West Yorkshire are taking action amid coronavirus fears after pupils returned from ski trips in northern Italy.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said official advice, updated yesterday, has been changed to say that those who have been to northern Italy – north of Pisa – should self-isolate if they develop flu-like symptoms on their return to the UK.

Meanwhile, Britons who have been in lockdown in regions of Italy – including those in the Lombardy and Veneto region – should self-isolate at home for 14 days even if they have no symptoms, he said.

In Italy, police have manned checkpoints around a dozen quarantined northern towns as 229 people have tested positive for coronavirus and seven have died,

Schools were closed, theatre performances cancelled, and Venice Carnival celebrations were called off, while producers said filming on the latest Mission: Impossible movie starring Tom Cruise has been halted.

Pupils from Ilkley Grammar School were on a ski trip in the Aosta Valley, northwest Italy, last week.

The school said it is calling parents who sent their children on the trip direct. It is offering the same advice as on the government website but has not sent students home to self-isolate.

A spokesperson for Ilkley Grammar School said: “We’re following government advice.”

A mum from the town called into a national radio phone-in programme for advice on coronavirus following her son’s ski trip in Italy. The caller, Joanne, told Radio 5 Live Breakfast’s Rachel Burden that her son had showed ‘signs of having a sniffle’ after returning from a ski trip on Sunday. An expert on the show stated that these could be mild symptoms.

Dr Connor Bamford, a PHD virologist at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute Experimental Medicine, Queen’s Unversity, Belfast, said: “It’s very specific to these regions in northern Italy so if it was these specific towns or cities I would follow that advice. There’s a chance but it’s very very low.”

Responding to a question about whether these could be mild symptoms, he said: “I think that’s a common sign for a lot of different viruses. It’s most likely to be a cold or a flu but these symptoms are also shared with the new coronavirus, except you’re much more likely to have picked up a cold virus or flu virus.”

When pressed on how she dealt with the situation, Joanne said she sent her son to school.

She told the radio show: “He’s at school at the moment. We hadn’t heard the news before he went to school. He doesn’t know anything about it.”

Health professionals on the show advised Joanne to call NHS line 111 and, as a precaution, try to keep her son at home. More than 20 children and staff from a West Yorkshire school have gone into self-isolation following a ski trip in northern Italy. The group - 19 pupils and four members of staff - from Salendine Nook High School Academy, Huddersfield, returned from their trip via Milan airport on Saturday.