The sight of an ambulance carrying workers in Hazmat safety gear to a Bradford house provoked major concern over the weekend.

A number of people witnessed the ambulance driving through Queensbury, before it stopped at an address in the area.

Paul Tyson managed to snap a picture of one worker re-entering the vehicle in white, protective clothing.

Speculation was rife on social media site, Facebook, with some claiming the emergency was related to coronavirus and that someone at the house had links to the far east.

One commenter said: “Ambulance just went past us in Queeny - driver head full white suit on and head helmet. Quite scary actually.”

But, the gossip has since been quashed.

There are no positive tests for the virus in Bradford at this time.

The Government’s Department of Health and Social Care declared on February 10, that a total of 1,114 people have been tested, of which 1,106 were confirmed negative and 8 positive.

Two of these were discovered in York and the patients have since been taken to Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

The third case was a man who returned to Brighton from a ski chalet in France, where five other Britons have now tested positive for coronavirus.

The claim that coronavirus had spread to Queensbury was also rubbished by someone who claimed to be the daughter of the houseowner, on Facebook.

The person said: “This is my dad’s house and yes, my family are from mainland China, but I can confirm that this is definitely not the coronavirus. Yes, my little brother was taken to hospital because he is ill, that is all - down to an infection that didn’t even need treating. Yes, they had to take precautions but this has been totally blown out of proportion and escalated far too quickly before anybody knows any facts”.

Health secretary Matt Hancock yesterday announced that coronavirus was a “serious and imminent threat to public health”.

But, equally, scaremongering and being “uneducated” on the situation has led to incidents of racism across the country.

It has even affected people’s livelihoods, with Karen Lee - owner of wholesalers Sing-Kee which supplies Chinese takeaways and businesses across the country - revealing exclusively to the T&A last week that her orders had dropped by between 20 to 30 per cent in just a week.

She even explained how she spoke to one takeaway in Newcastle which was having to close due to losing so much money.

The T&A contacted a number of authorities in an attempt to clear up the confusion that was sparked over the weekend.

This included the Department of Health and Social Care, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Bradford Council’s Department of Public Health. The Department of Health and Social Care said it did not comment on individual cases. Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Bradford Council both said it was not a matter for them to comment on.