The WA Department of Health will stop providing daily updates on the number of suspected Coronavirus cases, only committing to provide information to the public if a case is confirmed.

A spokeswoman from the Department said previous information on testing had been a “courtesy” to West Australians and that the parameters on what constituted a suspected case were evolving.

“As public health recommendations on who should be tested for potential infection are subject to change over time, the WA Department of Health will no longer provide a daily report on numbers of people under investigation,” she said.

“However, should a case be confirmed, this will be publicised as soon as appropriate.”

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From February 1, the Federal Government expanded the case definition for the novel coronavirus infection, which previously applied to people from the Hubei Province.

It now applied to all of mainland China, excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

On advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, the government noted the increasing number of cases in provinces outside Hubei.

It comes after the WA Department reduced the wait time on results by setting up testing capacity for novel coronavirus through PathWest in the Perth metropolitan area.

The local testing now means test results on possible cases can be returned in 24 hours.

The last possible case investigated was on Saturday. The test came up negative for the deadly virus.

Nation-wide measures have been established to stop the spread of the disease, with restricted entry to all travellers who have been to or travelled through mainland China since February 1.

Those who departed China before February 1 will not be affected and Australian citizens or permanent residents and their immediate family are exempt.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has increased the travel advisory to level four in mainland China, advising people in the country to leave immediately and to not travel there at all.

Australians trapped in the epicentre of the crisis, the Chinese city of Wuhan, will be rescued by Qantas and flown to Christmas Island for testing and quarantine.

The news comes as footage surfaced on social media of Indonesian residents being sprayed by authorities after arriving on a plane from Wuhan.