Matt Hancock had previously advised that children should sing Happy Birthday while washing their hands to make sure that the message gets through "very simply".
Boris Johnson has spoken out after being criticised for waiting until Monday to chair an emergency Government meeting on the spread of the virus.
The PM is under fire for not holding his first Cobra meeting on Covid-19 before the weekend.
By Sophie Yeo, Desmog UK
Ambassador Liu Xiaoming said the embassy had received reports of incidents at UK universities and schools.
Scientists have mapped out the potential global spread of coronavirus
The Department of Health said it was trying to find ‘as many passengers as we can’ who recently travelled to the UK from Wuhan.
China is building a hospital dedicated to treating patients infected with coronavirus.
Jeremy Corbyn quizzed Boris Johnson at PMQs about growing cancer treatment delays, asking: “how many more patients will face are life-threatening delays because our NHS is understaffed an underfunded?”