The coronavirus is spreading far beyond the confines of the Chinese fish market where symptoms were first reported — now you can track its spread.

Johns Hopkins University's Centre for Systems Science and Engineering in the US has launched a map visualising confirmed cases of the virus, which originated in Wuhan.

Confirmed cases are marked with red dots, which vary in size according to the amount of confirmed cases in the area shown.

Here's a snapshot of the map over the epicentre yesterday:

The virus originated in the city of Wuhan. ( Supplied: Johns Hopkins University )

That big red dot in the middle is Hubei, the province Wuhan is in.

When this screenshot was taken, there were more than 4,500 confirmed cases and 162 deaths. The coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Guangdong had the next highest number of cases.

The US university draws on data collected from the World Health Organisation as well as Chinese and US health bodies for daily updates of the map.

But it has its limitations

Cases for each country are broken down into states and provinces.

However, the map doesn't show individual cities or towns, which is why the dot is located closer to Jingmen, which is about a three-hour drive from Wuhan.

The map only represents states and provinces, not individual cities. ( Supplied: Johns Hopkins University )

Zooming out of China, you can see many of the cases are located in Asia. There are a few dots in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and North America.

You'll notice the dots in Australia do not correspond with the cities of reported cases.

The dots for Australia don't correlate with the cites of reported cases. ( Supplied: Johns Hopkins University )

The dot for Queensland is located in the state's north-west, while the case was confirmed in the Gold Coast, in the south-east.

At this time, there were seven reported cases of the virus in Australia.

But there are only three dots, because the virus has only been reported in Queensland, Victoria and NSW.

The dots don't match up with the cities where the virus has been reported. ( Supplied: Johns Hopkins University )

If you're squinting to see the dots, you're not alone.

The dots are quite tricky to see on most screens, and almost impossible to locate for people who are colour blind.

But while there are limitations to the representation of the data, the researchers powering the map are using the information in other ways.

Civil engineering professor Laura Gardner told the Johns Hopkins media centre the data was critical and would "become more valuable as we continue to collect it over time".

Her team is now using the data for modelling the possible spread of the outbreak and the most at-risk airports globally.

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