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A newborn baby appears to have been born with coronavirus or contracted it at birth.

The child was 30 hours old when doctors at Wuhan Children's Hospital tested whether they were infected.

The baby, whose identity has not been made public, proved to have the infection alongside another slightly older child.

Doctors were aware that the mother had coronavirus when she gave birth on February 2.

While the baby is suffering from shortness of breath and a chest infection, they have stable vital signs and no fever or cough.

The child's condition is being closely observed, China News Service reported.

(Image: CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/REX)

Zeng Lingkong, head of the ward and chief physician of neonatal medicine at Wuhan Children's Hospital, said the births should serve as a warning of a new means of transmission.

"This reminds us that we need to pay attention to the possibility of a new way of transmission of pneumonia infected by the new coronavirus—vertical transmission from mother to child," he said.

The total death toll in China from the coronavirus hit 490 this morning.

(Image: Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

The total number of infections in the country rose by 3,887 on Tuesday to 24,324.

Outside of the country 230 cases have been reported in 27 different countries.

A woman suspected of being infected by the coronavirus fled her isolation ward in Austria this morning, prompting a major police hunt.

(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

On Tuesday the woman voluntarily came to Salzburg University Medical Center close to the German border.

However, the 31-year-old disappeared from her room overnight.

A huge search operation was sparked which led police to find her at her home.

The woman had traveled from Taiwan to New Zealand on January 7, before heading back to Austria on January 26.