Texas health officials are investigating a suspected case of the deadly new coronavirus in a person who recently traveled to Wuhan - the Chinese city where the disease originated.

The Brazos County Health District announced the possible new case on Thursday.

The patient, who was not named, has been isolated in their home after health care providers recognised their symptoms as consistent with the coronavirus - which has killed 25 people and sickened more than 800 across at least nine countries.

So far only one case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in the US - a Washington state man who was diagnosed on Monday after returning from a trip to Wuhan.

That man is currently being treated by a robot in a guarded bio-containment room at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.

Doctors have identified and are monitoring 16 people he came into contact with in the US during the five days before he was diagnosed.

Officials are also investigating another potential case involving a passenger who flew into Los Angeles International Airport from Mexico City on Wednesday.

The two new suspected infections came as health experts warned that the US will likely see an increase in cases as the coronavirus continues to spread at an alarming rate.

The US has one confirmed coronavirus case in Washington state and two others suspected in Los Angeles, California, and Brazos County, Texas, as of Thursday afternoon

The Brazos County Health District in Texas is investigating a suspected case of the deadly new coronavirus in a person who recently traveled to Wuhan - the Chinese city where the disease originated (file photo)

News of the possible Texas case came hours after a passenger on a flight to Los Angeles International Airport from Mexico City was hospitalised and quarantined on Wednesday night after showing 'disturbing' symptoms consistent with China's deadly coronavirus. Travelers are seen wearing face masks as they prepare to board flights at LAX on Thursday

The first American to be infected with coronavirus is being treated by a robot in a guarded bio-containment room at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington (pictured) as doctors are monitoring 16 people he came into contact with in the US during the five days before he was diagnosed

Experts don't yet know how quickly the disease can spread from person-to-person, but a World Health Organization (WHO) official has now said it is transmitted faster than previously thought. The graphic above shows where cases have been reported as of Thursday

The LAX passenger was hospitalised and quarantined after showing 'disturbing' symptoms consistent with the new coronavirus.

That patient, who has not been identified, arrived at LAX on American Airlines flight 2546 on Wednesday evening and was met by Los Angeles firefighters and police.

Officials conducted a 'deep contamination process' after transporting the patient to a local hospital.

Hours earlier, Los Angeles County public health officials warned it was 'very possible' that the area would see at least one coronavirus case given the number of people traveling between Southern California and China.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began conducting health screenings of passengers arriving at LAX - as well as four other major airports across the US - from China last Saturday.

The patient in Brazos County, who was not named, has been isolated in their home after health care providers recognized their symptoms as consistent with the coronavirus

The LAX passenger's hospitalization came hours after Los Angeles County public health officials warned it was 'very possible' that the area would see at least one coronavirus case given the number of people traveling between Southern California and China

The Washington man, who has not been named, returned to the US from China on January 15 but was not officially diagnosed with coronavirus until January 20.

Officials say he visited Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originated, before flying into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

He reportedly started experiencing symptoms the day after he returned and immediately sought medical treatment after seeing online coverage of the virus.

The man is said to be in good condition and recovering at Providence Regional Medical Center - where he has been isolated in a 20-foot-by-20-foot bio-containment room.

Dr George Diaz, head of the centre's infectious disease programme, said the patient is being monitored by a robot equipped with a camera, microphone and stethoscope to limit physical contact with hospital staff.

Doctors are also monitoring more than a dozen people who the patient encountered - and therefore potentially infected - before being hospitalised.

Heath officials have warned that the US will likely see additional cases of coronavirus as the deadly disease continues its spread at a much faster rate than previously thought.

The unnamed man flew in to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport from China on January 15 and returned to his home in Snohomish County before being diagnosed with the coronavirus five days later on January 20

More than 800 cases of coronavirus, a SARS-like disease, have been reported across nine countries - including in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and the US - since the first cases were reported in Wuhan in late December.

Scientists estimate the true number of people infected since the outbreak began is in the thousands, possibly higher than 9,000.

The virus, called 2019-nCoV, is thought to have spread into humans from a Wuhan seafood market where wild animals were allegedly traded illegally.

WHEN ARE PATIENTS CONTAGIOUS? CDC officials are not 100 percent clear on when coronavirus patients are contagious but have said they suspect an incubation period of two to 14 days from exposure. Officials have warned that patients are most contagious after they begin showing symptoms but the disease can spread at a 'much lower rate' when asymptomatic. In the case of the Washington state man, experts say he was unlikely to have transmitted the disease to anyone because he sought treatment immediately after showing symptoms. Advertisement

International concern has grown with the revelation that the virus spreads not just from animals to people, but between people, likely in a similar way to how colds spread.

Experts don't yet know how quickly the disease can spread from person-to-person, but a World Health Organisation (WHO) official has now said it is transmitted faster than previously thought.

'We are now seeing second and third generation spread,' said Dr David Heymann, the chairperson of a WHO committee gathering data on the virus.

Third generation means that someone who became infected after handling animals at the market in Wuhan, China, could transmit the virus to someone else, who then passes it to a third person.

Heymann said the virus initially appeared to spread only by very close contact that would typically occur within a family, such as hugging, kissing or sharing eating utensils.

He said new evidence suggests more distant contact could spread the virus, such as if an infected person were to sneeze or cough near someone else's face.

Heymann noted that there is no evidence indicated that the virus is airborne and could spread across a room.

Experts say the difficulty of containing the coronavirus is that so many patients have mild, cold-like symptoms and don't realize they have the infection – but it can quickly turn deadly

This picture released by the Central Hospital of Wuhan shows a medic donning full-body hazardous material suit looking after one patient who has been infected by a new deadly virus

The Washington state patient, who lives alone in Snohomish County, had traveled by himself from Wuhan but did not visit any of the markets at the epicenter of the outbreak, according to state health officials.

He did not fly directly home from Wuhan, but arrived on January 15, the day before screening was in place and before he developed symptoms.

He sought treatment on the 16th, was tested on the 17th and his diagnosis was confirmed on Monday the 20th, health officials said.

CORONAVIRUS: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR What is this virus? The virus has been identified as a new type of coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of pathogens, most of which cause mild respiratory infections such as the common cold. But coronaviruses can also be deadly. SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is caused by a coronavirus and killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong in the early 2000s. Can it kill? Yes. 25 people have so far died after testing positive for the virus. What are the symptoms? Its symptoms are typically a fever, cough and trouble breathing, but some patients have developed pneumonia, a potentially life-threatening infection that causes inflammation of the small air sacs in the lungs. People carrying the novel coronavirus may only have mild symptoms, such as a sore throat. They may assume they have a common cold and not seek medical attention, experts fear. How is it detected? The virus's genetic sequencing was released by scientists in China to the rest of the world to enable other countries to quickly diagnose potential new cases. This helps other countries respond quickly to disease outbreaks. To contain the virus, airports are detecting infected people with temperature checks. But as with every virus, it has an incubation period, meaning detection is not always possible because symptoms have not appeared yet. How did it start and spread? The first cases identified were among people connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. Cases have since been identified elsewhere which could have been spread through human-to-human transmission. What are countries doing to prevent the spread? Countries in Asia have stepped up airport surveillance. They include Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Australia and the US are also screening patients for a high temperature, and the UK announced it will screen passengers returning from Wuhan. Is it similar to anything we've ever seen before? Experts have compared it to the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The epidemic started in southern China and killed more than 700 people in mainland China, Hong Kong and elsewhere Advertisement

Officials emphasised that risk to the public is low and said there was no reason to panic.

Janet Baseman, a professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, told the Daily Beast that the Washington patient was 'very, very, very unlikely' to have transmitted the disease to anyone else because went in for treatment immediately after showing symptoms.

'Usually people do not transmit viruses like this to other people until they have symptoms themselves,' Baseman said.

Health authorities said they began reaching out to everyone who came into contact with him on Tuesday to check whether they are showing symptoms, which can include fever, cough and runny nose.

'All the close contacts will be part of what we call "active monitoring",' Washington state Health Secretary John Wiesman Wiesman said.

'That means that a public health worker will call the person daily to do a symptom check for them, see if they have a fever, cough, any respiratory issues.

'And should anyone develop symptoms at any point in time, these people who are under monitoring will be instructed to immediately call a public health worker to report the symptoms, and then we would help facilitate a medical evaluation.'

Wiesman defined close contact as a person who was within six feet of the patient for a prolonged period of time.

Officials have no recommended isolation for those people unless they develop symptoms, at which point they would be infectious.

So far, people suspected or confirmed to have the coronavirus have been put into isolation as quickly as possible because experts are unsure of how contagious it is.

Potential patients in China have been pictured being moved around inside plastic whole-body tubes to avoid exposing health workers.

At least 15 medics have already become infected in Wuhan.

Seventeen of the 18 patients who've died from the virus were in and around Wuhan. They ranged in age from 48 to 89, with an average age of 73.

Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, is now on lockdown as public transport has been halted and citizens told not to leave the city except in an emergency.

The quarantine came just ahead of Saturday's Lunar New Year, which marks one of the China's busiest travel seasons.

Chinese officials have warned that the deadly new virus is mutating and becoming increasingly difficult to control.

World Health Organisation officials met on Thursday and determined that the outbreak should not be considered a 'public health emergency of international concern'.

A man is seen being wheeled out of an airport in Fuzhou, China, in a quarantine box after he reportedly showed possible coronavirus symptoms, including a fever, during a screening

Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, is now on lockdown as public transport has been halted and citizens told not to leave the city except in an emergency. Staff members are seen checking body temperatures of passengers arriving on a train from Wuhan to Hangzhou on Thursday before the quarantine went into effect

Airports in the US are setting up screening for patients arriving from Wuhan in China. Pictured: People wearing masks as they arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday

Following confirmation of the first American case, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a plan to 'funnel' all inbound passengers from Wuhan to five major US airports equipped to screen for the virus.

Screening checkpoints were set up at Los Angeles International Airport, New York's John F Kennedy airport and San Francisco International Airport last week and additional checkpoints are being installed at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta by the end of this week.

President Donald Trump said earlier this week that the US 'has it totally under control', adding 'we do have a plan, and we think it's going to be handled very well'.

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS RAMPS UP

More than 800 people are confirmed to have been infected with the new coronavirus strain since it was first detected in late December.

Chinese authorities initially said that the virus was mild and could not be transmitted between humans - but that changed last week as the number of people infected grew nine-fold in the space of a few days, with just 48 confirmed cases on January 17.

Cases have risen nine-fold in the space of a few days, with just 48 confirmed cases on January 17.

The virus is from the same family that caused previous outbreaks of SARS and MERS, killing hundreds of people in dozens of countries.

The outbreak is believed to originated at a now-shuttered seafood market in Wuhan before travellers carried it to other parts of China and at least eight other countries.

At least 444 of the cases - and all but one of the deaths - have occurred in the Hubei province, which includes Wuhan, with an additional 140 reported across other Chinese provinces.

KILLER VIRUS MAY HAVE COME FROM BATS, SCIENTISTS SAY The killer coronavirus sweeping across the world may have come from bats, scientists have said. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the People's Liberation Army and Institut Pasteur of Shanghai came to the conclusion. In a statement, the team said: 'The Wuhan coronavirus' natural host could be bats… but between bats and humans there may be an unknown intermediate. Tests of the virus, which has yet to be named, have revealed it targets a protein called ACE2 – just like its cousin SARS, the South China Morning Post reported. Tracing the evolution of the virus, the team of experts found it belonged to betacoronavirus, making it structurally similar to SARS. Authorities have pointed the blame on food markets in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak that scientists are scrambling to contain. Rodents and bats among other animals are slaughtered and sold in traditional 'wet markets', which tourists flock to see the 'real' side of the country. Advertisement

Four cases have been confirmed in Thailand and one in each of the following countries: Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Singapore and Vietnam announced Thursday that they have recorded cases of the infection.

An Indian politician tweeted that an Indian nurse was being treated for the infection in Saudi Arabia - but that turned out to be inaccurate as it was revealed she had a similar virus called MERS.

A spokesman for the Scottish government reported that five people were being tested for the coronavirus after traveling to Wuhan.

The official emphasised that the tests are 'a precautionary measure only' and that there are currently no confirmed cases of the virus in Scotland.

Experts fear that there will be a surge of cases as China enters its busiest travel period due to the Lunar New Year, which sees many people traveling back to the home town or village.

Guan Yi, a virologist who helped identify SARS in 2003, put himself under quarantine on Thursday after visiting Wuhan.

'A bigger outbreak is certain,' Yi told Caixin magazine.

He 'conservatively' estimated that the latest outbreak could be 10 times larger than the SARS epidemic because that virus was transmitted by only a few 'super spreaders' in a more defined part of the country.

'We have passed through the "golden period" for prevention and control,' Yi said.

'What's more, we've got the holiday traffic rush and a dereliction of duty from certain officials.'

Four Chinese cities that are home to some 27.5 million people - Wuhan, Ezhou, Huanggang and Xianning - went into lockdown and major Chinese New Year events in Beijing were canceled on Thursday as officials ramped up efforts to control the spread.

Footage coming out of Wuhan today shows disastrous scenes, with a man seen disinfecting a neighborhood with gas, traffic building up on blockaded highways and shoppers scrapping in a supermarket.

One resident told the BBC the atmosphere in the city felt like 'the end of the world'.

In one video which emerged from Wuhan today, a man can be seen 'disinfecting' eerily quiet streets of Wuhan, with billowing fumes filling the air outside an apartment block

Shoppers are pictured in a supermarket in Wuhan, where people are complaining that food prices have risen and videos showed people scrapping over groceries (Picture taken today, January 23)

Quarantine tents appear to have been set-up on the outskirts to isolate anyone showing symptoms in a pop-up medical area

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION CONCLUDES OUTBREAK IS NOT A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY

The WHO on Thursday concluded that it is 'too early to consider that this event is a public health emergency of international concern'.

The United Nations health agency announced the decision after independent experts spent two days assessing information about the spread of the virus.

The WHO was expected to make the declaration in a meeting held in Geneva on Wednesday - but members failed to come to a consensus and decided to reconvene Thursday.

'The decision about whether or not to declare a public health emergency of international concern is one I take extremely seriously, and one I am only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of all the evidence,' Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said after Wednesday's meeting.

Following Thursday's meeting, committee chairman Dr Didier Houssin said 'now is not the time' to declare an emergency based on the limited global spread of the virus and the isolation of deaths to China.

The agency defines an emergency as an 'extraordinary event' that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

Houssin added that the information they had from Chinese authorities was too limited and imprecise for the committee to make a recommendation that day.

He said the committee remained divided — roughly 50/50 — over the course of the two-day meeting.

If WHO members had decided the other way, it would have been just the sixth time in history that it has happened.

The only other outbreaks to have been granted such a status include the 2009 Swine flu epidemic, the resurgence of Polio in 2014, the worldwide spread of Zika in 2016 and the two most recent Ebola outbreaks in 2014 and last year.

The WHO has advised governments to be prepared for the disease and ready to test anyone with symptoms who has traveled to affected regions.

The WHO on Thursday concluded that it is 'too early to consider that this event is a public health emergency of international concern'. Pictured: Maria van Kerkhove, head of emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Dr Didier Houssin, chairman of the emergency committee

US PUTS UP SHIELD

The US CDC raised its travel notice for Wuhan to the highest of three levels on Thursday, recommending that travelers avoid all nonessential visits to the city.

An advisory warning posted on the agency's website also warned travelers to 'remain alert if traveling to other parts of China' by avoiding contact with sick people, animals and animal markets.

Anyone who has traveled to China in the past two weeks has been warned to seek immediate care if they develop symptoms such as fever, cough or trouble breathing.

US officials announced their plan to stop the spread of the coronavirus after the first American case was confirmed on Tuesday.

California toddler hospitalised with a different strain of coronavirus A three-year-old California girl has been hospitalised for a month with the coronavirus, but it is a different and less severe strain than the deadly virus that has killed at least 25 in China. Aliyah Cardoza, from Azusa, was hospitalized on December 23 with what appeared to be common flu symptoms including a fever and a cough that escalated to a diagnosis of coronovavirus, Mycoplasma, acute respiratory syndrome and pneumonia. A month later, Aliyah is intubated at Children's Hospital Los Angeles with a breathing tube and a chest tube, her mother Gloria Aguilera said. Aliyah was diagnosed with the NL63 strain of the coronavirus, a family of viruses that span from common cold-like symptoms to severe respiratory diseases. The NL63 strain is different than the 2019-nCoV strain, also known as the Novel Coronavirus, that killed 25 people and sickened hundreds in China, leading the country to send three cities into lockdown to stop it from spreading. Read the full story here. Three-year-old Aliyah Cardoza Advertisement

Officials said they would be 'funnelling' air passengers arriving in the US from Wuhan through five major airports to ensure all are screened for the virus.

Dr Martin Cetron, director for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine at the Centers for Disease Control, said the CDC has instructed the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Department to redirect anyone who tries to get from Wuhan to the US without going through any of those five airports by reissuing tickets or potentially rerouting entire flights.

'With increasing cases, we decided to move into this full-on, 100 percent coverage strategy, which means adding additional airports and ... begin our funnelling approach and redirect all the traffic to airports that have screening so that the benefit of the alert could be more completely covered,' Cetron said Tuesday.

When a traveller is sent for a screening in the US, they are first required to take a survey about possible symptoms, such as cough or fever, as well as whether they visited the meat or seafood markets in Wuhan that have been tied to the outbreak.

If they appear to have any symptoms associated with coronavirus, they are taken to on-site triage for further examination and a temperature check.

Two passengers flying from Shanghai on United Airlines were reportedly examined at O'Hare on Tuesday after appearing to show symptoms of coronavirus, the airline said.

It's unclear what led officials to single out the passengers, but they were both cleared and released after examination.

'We continue to follow CDC guidelines and remain in close contact with authorities in the United States and Asia to further ensure the safety of our customers and employees,' a United spokesperson told CNBC.

President Donald Trump addressed the deadly new virus during remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, early Wednesday morning.

He praised the CDC's rapid response and said the situation is being handled 'very well'.

'The CDC has been terrific, very great professionals. We're in very good shape and I think China is in very good shape also,' Trump said.

The president added in an interview with CNBC's 'Squawk Box' that he was 'not at all' concerned about the possibility of a pandemic.

'It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control,' he said.

'We have it totally under control. We do have a plan, and we think it's going to be handled very well.'

President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised the CDC and said he is 'not at all' concerned about the possibility of a pandemic

A family is seen arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport wearing protective masks on Wednesday

Two fire trucks and a US Customs and Border Protection cruiser are seen outside the Atlanta airport on Wednesday as officials set up coronavirus screening checkpoints

A top official at the National Institute of Health (NIH) revealed Wednesday that human trials for a vaccine targeting 2019-nCoV could begin within three months.

Anthony S Fauci, the director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Bloomberg Law that his agency is working with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company Moderna Inc to develop the vaccine.

'We're already working on it,' Fauci said. 'And hopefully in a period of about three months, we'll be able to start a phase I trial in humans.'

Fauci said his agency was also working with the WHO and CDC to obtain information about helping doctors around the world identify symptoms of coronavirus.

'Obviously as is always the case when we have these outbreaks, it's a lot of collaboration and synergy between the CDC and the WHO and the NIH,' he said. 'Our job ultimately is to develop countermeasures.'

Vaccine experts at Baylor University are also reportedly working on modifying a vaccine they designed to prevent SARS to protect against the new, related coronavirus.

But the school's Dean of Tropical Medicine, which is developing the shot, Dr Peter Hotez, told DailyMail.com that it's likely years away from deployment.

FEARS OF UNDER-REPORTING BY CHINESE OFFICIALS

Leading scientists in Asia have accused China of under-reporting cases, saying it has a 'track record' of doing so and warning the 'true picture may be completely different'.

Piotr Chlebicki, at Mount Alvernia Hospital in Singapore, told South China Morning Post it was 'hard to believe [the official number of] cases'.

He added: 'China has a track record of under-reporting cases, so the true picture may be completely different.'

The newspaper reported experts are concerned about the number of bureaucratic steps – put in place after the 2003 SARS outbreak – before a case can be confirmed.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday urged China to release all information about the outbreak of a new virus and work with Taiwan on curbing its spread.

At China's insistence, Taiwan is not a member of the World Health Organization and is not allowed to participate in any of its meetings. However, large numbers of Taiwanese travel to and live in China.

Tsai said: 'I especially want to urge China, being a member of international society, that it should fulfill its responsibilities to make the situation of the outbreak transparent, and to share accurate information on the outbreak with Taiwan.'

One case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in Taiwan, which is home to 23 million people.

Sharing information is also important for the health of the Chinese population and Beijing 'should not put political concerns above the protection of its own people,' Tsai said.

China regards Taiwan as its own territory and says it is not entitled to representation in most international bodies.