Two Sydney doctors are among the latest patients in Australia to be infected with coronavirus after attending a medical seminar.

In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the two doctors who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 attended the same radiology seminar on February 18, alongside about 70 other medical professionals.

The doctors, from Ryde and Liverpool hospitals, are so far the only ones who are sick from that group and 14 days have passed, giving authorities hope no one else has been infected.

“New South Wales Health has been working very hard to try to contact each of those doctors and other attendees of the conference, so far it has been positive, nobody else showing any symptoms of coronavirus,” Mr Hazzard said.

However the group of doctors and health professionals continue to be monitored for any further signs of the illness.

View photos Health authorities have said Ryde Hospital should not be avoided over coronavirus fears. Source: Ryde Hospital More

Mr Hazzard said members of the public, and even some staff, had expressed concerns it was no longer safe to attend Ryde Hospital, where one of the doctors worked, simply identified as a 53-year-old man.

But the minister was keen to assure the public that every possible step had been taken to ensure the facility did not pose a public health risk.

“I’ve heard people saying they are concerned about going to Ryde Hospital. Some staff have said that some members of the public, but all the advice I have had from New South Wales Health is that they have taken every single step to ensure that Ryde Hospital is entirely safe to visit,” he said.

During the press conference, Mr Hazzard also confirmed a childcare centre in Sydney has been shut down over fears staff have contracted coronavirus. The move came after some of the centre’s children and staff had visited a nearby aged care facility where a female worker had tested positive for the virus.

Outbreak has reached ‘new phase’ in Australia

Mr Hazzard said it was clear the outbreak had reached a new phase in NSW and conceded that containment was likely impossible.

“It is fair to say that we do have an evolution happening in the spread of this virus. NSW Health is doing everything they can to try to still contain it, but we do know that containment is... an unlikely outcome.”

He called on the community to work constructively with the state government to support it in “what has really become a war in defeating this coronavirus,” he said.

View photos The latest figures of known coronavirus cases in Australia as of Thursday afternoon. More

The number of confirmed cases in NSW remains at 22, with seven of those suspected to involve person-to-person transmission.

A 95-year-old woman from the Dorothy Henderson Lodge aged care facility in Sydney was the second person to die in Australia from the virus.

The first was a 78-year-old man who passed away in Perth earlier this week after travelling on the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship.

with AAP

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