MAJOR national and local events were being cancelled by the hour last night as fears around coronavirus increased.

This year's Local Elections in England, due to take place in May, were cancelled yesterday afternoon.

It comes as the number of diagnoses in Oxfordshire rose to 22 yesterday, the highest of any NHS region.

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In Oxfordshire, the city, West Oxfordshire and Cherwell councils were all supposed to hold elections, along with dozens of towns and parishes.

An election for a new Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner has also been pulled.

The government said all elections would be postponed for a year.

Oxford United will be without a game until at least April 4 after the EFL decided to suspend its season for three weeks.

Players and staff have been asked to stay away from the training ground at Horspath for the next ten days while the site is deep-cleaned, although no cases of the virus have been confirmed at the club.

Oxford Brookes University was last night understood to be planning for a possible full closure.

In a leaked email sent to the Oxford Mail yesterday, university leaders said they were considering closing for three weeks and delaying all deadlines by the same amount of time.

Oxford University, meanwhile, confirmed yesterday that six of its students had now been diagnosed with Covid-19.

It is planning to stay open but has started 'escalating' its reaction.

The university urged all of its UK undergraduates to return home as soon as possible after the end of term yesterday, and cancelled or rearranged all exams due to take place over the Easter break.

It also said it was drawing up 'contingency' plans for next term, including more use of technology to allow people to connect remotely.

Elsewhere, dozens of public events are now being cancelled.

Organisers of the ATOM Festival of Science and Technology in Abingdon, due to start tomorrow, have cancelled 'all public events'.

The festival had been due to run until next Sunday, and posting on Facebook the team said they were 'heartbroken'.

Oxford charity Daybreak, which runs day clubs for people dementia in Greater Leys, North Oxford and Kidlington, has closed them all on a temporary basis.

Singer songwriter Piney Gir, who was due to play at Oxford's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centre in St Ebbes last night, said she was also disappointed after that event was pulled.

Climate protest group Extinction Rebellion, meanwhile, cancelled a major 'disco-bediance' event in Wallingford town centre today which was set to include dancing and a pink boat, as well as a stall at today's Headington market.

Oxford Playhouse has said that, although it is staying open, if any ticketholders 'feel uncomfortable' attending performances they can exchange tickets for other events or get credit at the theatre lasting for 12 months.

The New Theatre is also staying open and said it is 'taking precautionary measures in line with UK government health and safety recommendations'.

Didcot charity SOFEA, which provides surplus food to organisations and families across Oxfordshire, was yesterday preparing to distribute food boxes to nearly 700 families who are currently members.

It is also continuing its community larder programme across its eight hubs in Oxfordshire and planning to open extra larders in other areas of need.

Ten people have now died with the virus in the UK, with 797 cases last night confirmed across the country. The government estimated this week that between 5,000 and 10,000 people probably have the virus.

In Oxfordshire the number of cases nearly doubled on Thursday from nine to 17, and rose to 22 yesterday.

In the morning people were seen queuing to get into Superdrug in Kidlington, with onlookers speculating that they were wanting to stocking up on medical supplies or hand sanitiser.

Picture: Stef Andrews The slew of event cancellations across the country comes despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson's announcement on Thursday that large public events were not being banned and schools and public buildings would not be shut for the time being.

The government's chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance also said at the same press briefing that it was not the right time for people to self-isolate on a mass scale.

Sir Patrick explained that it was 'not desirable to stop everybody getting the virus' because it was important to allow immunity to build up to protect the population in the future.