WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is watching developments surrounding the deadly coronavirus closely, but a top official on Tuesday signaled that the central bank is not yet ready to act.

Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida said that economic disruptions in China from the virus “could spill over to the rest of the global economy” but added that “it is still too soon to even speculate about either the size or the persistence of these effects, or whether they will lead to a material change in the outlook.”

Mr. Clarida is the highest-ranking Fed official to speak since numbers reported over the weekend suggested the virus had begun to spread more quickly outside China’s Hubei Province.

The coronavirus has now infected more than 80,000 people in at least 33 countries. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday warned Americans to prepare for the disease to spread in the United States, and a day after its worst one-day slide in two years, the S&P 500 continued to tumble.