Australian consular officials will arrive in Hubei province as early as Wednesday to work on a plan to evacuate hundreds of Australians there. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has sent officials on the nine-hour journey from Shanghai to Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak. At least 400 Australians have sought consular help for themselves or family members trapped in the locked-down area, as China's official death toll from the coronavirus hit 106 on Tuesday, with more than 4500 people confirmed as being infected. It came as Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China was sure of defeating the "devil" coronavirus. Despite his confidence, international alarm was rising. From France to Japan, governments were organising evacuations, while Hong Kong - the scene of anti-China unrest for months - planned to suspend rail and ferry links with the mainland.

Loading The US Embassy in Beijing said a chartered plane would pick up its consular staff on Wednesday from Wuhan, the central city of 11 million people. World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Xi met in Beijing to discuss how to protect Chinese and foreigners in areas affected by the virus and "possible" evacuation alternatives, a WHO spokesman said. "The virus is a devil and we cannot let the devil hide," state television quoted Xi as saying. "China will strengthen international cooperation and welcomes the WHO participation in virus prevention ... China is confident of winning the battle against the virus."

First human-to-human transmission in Europe Health officials on Tuesday reported what appeared to be the first known case of human-to-human transmission of the virus in Europe — specifically, in Germany — and in Japan. Another case was recently reported in Vietnam. The cases show that countries across the world are now faced with the task of limiting the spread of the disease on their own soil, not just seeking to identify and quarantine ailing patients who had travelled from China. Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said the first Japanese national — and the sixth person in Japan overall — to be diagnosed with the coronavirus was a man in his 60s. He had never been to Wuhan, but he had worked as a bus driver earlier this month for two different group tours from that city, officials said. The man began experiencing symptoms on January 14, was hospitalised on Saturday and was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Tuesday.

The infected German, whose case was also confirmed on Tuesday, is a 33-year-old man from Bavaria who had been in contact with a Chinese woman in Germany, officials said. The woman was diagnosed with the virus after flying home to China. The man was in good condition, German officials said. Investors also are fretting about the impact on the world's second-biggest economy amid travel bans and an extended Lunar New Year holiday. Global stocks fell again, China's yuan currency dipped to its weakest in 2020, and oil prices hit three-month lows. OPEC wants to extend oil output cuts until at least June, with the possibility of deeper reductions if demand in China is significantly impacted, sources at the producers' group said. Australian travellers are being urged to reconsider their need to travel to China overall. Credit:AP

Contagion The flu-like virus has spread overseas, but none of the 106 deaths has been beyond China and all but six were in Wuhan, where the virus emerged last month, probably from illegally traded wildlife. However, cases in Germany, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan where the virus has spread person-to-person - as opposed to a visitor from China arriving - have heightened concern. "The reported human-to-human transmission in Germany and Japan is unsurprising to see," said Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at Britain's University of Southampton. "We will continue to see further similar cases outside of China, but the indications are at this stage that onwards transmission will be limited, so there will likely not be too many cases for example across Europe, and on a much lesser scale than we are seeing in China."

Chinese-ruled Hong Kong said high-speed rail services to the mainland would be suspended from midnight on Thursday, while the number of flights would be halved. Thailand confirmed six more infections among visitors from China, taking its tally to 14, the highest outside China. Far eastern Russian regions would close their borders with China until February 7, Tass news agency said. Wuhan is under virtual quarantine, with a lockdown on transport and bans on gatherings. Tens of millions of others in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, live under some form of travel curbs. Reminder of SARS Communist Party-ruled China has been eager to show it is transparent over this outbreak, after initially covering up the extent of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic that killed about 800 people globally in 2002-2003.

Loading Known as "2019-nCoV", the newly identified coronavirus can cause pneumonia and, like other respiratory infections, it spreads between people in droplets from coughs and sneezes. It is too early to know what its death rate will be, since there are likely to be many cases of milder disease going undetected. It has an incubation of between one and 14 days. A WHO panel of 16 independent experts twice last week declined to declare an international emergency. Traditionally, the WHO is reluctant to antagonise or ostracise countries dealing with epidemics for fear of undermining future willingness to report cases of infectious disease outbreaks. Authorities in Hubei, home to nearly 60 million people, have been the focus of public outrage on China's heavily censored social media over what many see as a bungled initial response.