Another Chinese tourist has been diagnosed with coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in Australia to nine.

A 42-year-old woman who flew into the country on a Tigerair flight TT56 on Monday was confirmed to be infected in the Gold Coast on Thursday evening.

She was travelling with a 44-year-old man who has already been confirmed as having the killer virus.

Their companions - who include children - are being tested. At least four of them, including the children, are among those showing symptoms of the virus.

The group were staying at a hotel in Broadbeach.

The development came just hours after a woman in her 40s, from China's Hubei province - the epicentre of coronavirus - was found to have the virus in Melbourne.

People wearing face masks walk by Flinders Street Station after cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Melbourne on Wednesday

Nine cases in Australia have been confirmed - four in NSW, three in Victoria and two in Queensland

She went to a GP and was referred to hospital, where tests later found that she had contracted the virus.

She has been in Australia for about a week and had reportedly been showing symptoms for two or three days.

The woman is now being treated in isolation at Royal Melbourne Hospital.

The total number of Australian cases is now nine, with three of those in Victoria, four in New South Wales and two in Queensland.

Two other Australians have been infected in China.

Meanwhile, concerns are growing over a Tiger Airlines domestic flight which an infected man boarded last week.

Authorities are seeking to track down other passengers on board Flight TT566 from Melbourne to the Gold Coast, on January 27.

The other infected man to fall ill from the Gold Coast was from Wuhan - the Chinese city at the epicentre of the virus outbreak - and flew in to Melbourne via Singapore on January 22.

He developed symptoms on the flight, which was carrying about 150-200 passengers.

He spent five days in the city before flying north to the Gold Coast, where he became increasingly unwell at his accommodation and called an ambulance.

He was travelling with eight other tourists, four of whom have fallen ill and are being tested for the virus.

Australian authorities are trying to track down everyone who was on board a Tiger Airways flight from Melbourne to the Gold Coast on January 27, as an infected man was a passenger

Mr Joyce said it was too early to say what impact the coronavirus outbreak might have on the carrier's business (people leaving arrivals terminal at Sydney International Airport)

China Eastern Airlines cabin wear a protective face masks at Brisbane International Airport

He is in isolation in hospital.

Tiger Airways says it's in the process of contacting affected passengers and crew members, and would direct them to see their doctors.

Anyone who was on the flight has also been urged to call Queensland Health to ensure they take the safest and most appropriate action.

A total of 167 flights that can carry 48,999 people are landing in Australia from mainland China per week as coronavirus spreads around the world.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF THE CORONAVIRUS? Once someone has caught the virus it may take between two and 14 days for them to show any symptoms. If and when they do, typical signs include: a runny nose

a cough

sore throat

fever (high temperature) The vast majority of patients – at least 97 per cent, based on available data – will recover from these without any issues or medical help. In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people. Advertisement

Based on those figures, as many as 342,993 people may have entered Australia from China since the deadly virus was first detected in Wuhan seven weeks ago.

On Thursday, major airlines suspended or reduced services to China including British Airways, Lufthansa, American Airlines, KLM, and United.

But the airlines that fly from China to Australia - including eight Chinese airlines and Qantas - made no changes to their routes, except for China Eastern cancelling its flight from Wuhan to Sydney last week.

The flights include 62 planes from Guangzhou, 42 from Shanghai and 18 from Beijing per week, with direct routes to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Darwin.

On Wednesday, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline was considering scrapping its Sydney to Beijing route due to low demand.

The airline had already announced plans to axe that service from March, but Mr Joyce suggested that could happen sooner.

He also said it was too early to say what impact the coronavirus outbreak might have on the carrier's business.

He said the most similar comparison to coronavirus was the 2003 SARS epidemic in 2003, which cost the airline $55 million in lost earnings over a six to eight-month period and led it to cut some international capacity.

Meanwhile, in New South Wales, authorities fear as many as 16 other Australians in New South Wales may have contracted the disease.

Four people there have been diagnosed with the disease, and three in Victoria.

Some 170 people have died from the virus in mainland China and more than 7,000 have been infected worldwide

People are seen leaving the arrivals terminal at Sydney International airport on January 29, 2020

The Federal government is planning to quarantine Australians evacuated from Wuhan on isolated Christmas Island.

The disease, which has killed at least 162 people around the world, is believed to have come from Wuhan, a city of 11 million people.

The virus is believed to have spread from the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market. Such 'wet' markets sell meat and seafood alongside live animals such as dogs, rats, snakes, civets and supposedly koalas.

The proximity of people to live and dead animals makes it easy for humans to contract viruses.

The SARS virus which broke out in 2003 also likely started in wet markets.

SARS was originally hosted by bats which infected other animals. Those animals transmitted SARS to humans.