The health ministry said Saturday it has confirmed a third case of a new deadly virus that has been rapidly spreading in China and beyond.

The patient is a woman from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak of the mysterious coronavirus began, the ministry said, adding she arrived in Japan on Jan. 18.

The ministry has not disclosed her nationality or which airport or port she used when she entered the country.

The woman in her 30s, who is in stable condition, is said to have had no symptoms at the time of arrival but developed a fever and started coughing on Tuesday night, according to the ministry.

She visited a Tokyo hospital on Thursday and later tested positive for the virus, which has killed at least 41 people in China.

She has not been hospitalized as she has been exhibiting only minor symptoms and is staying in her hotel room, a ministry official said at a news conference.

She came to Japan as part of a family of four. However, so far the other three have not developed any symptoms, the official said.

He added that the number of people suspected of contracting the virus is “not sharply increasing” in Japan. But he stopped short of saying how many have tested negative or are currently under observation.

The number of people with pneumonia caused by the virus topped 1,300 worldwide on Saturday, just as hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens set out on domestic and overseas trips at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday.

RELATED PHOTOS Health ministry officials hold a news conference Saturday in Tokyo concerning the third confirmed case of coronavirus infection in Japan. The latest case involves a tourist from the virus-hit central Chinese city of Wuhan. | KYODO