There are now more than 7000 confirmed cases of viral pneumonia caused by the virus and 170 deaths. There have been at least 91 cases confirmed outside China in more than 20 countries, including nine in Australia.
The virus has spread to more people in China than were infected by the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003.
In China’s Hubei province, 17 cities have been locked down, trapping more than 50 million people.
On Tuesday, Hong Kong announced it would be suspending rail and ferry travel to and from the mainland from Thursday, with the number of flights to be halved.
Elsewhere, governments across the world scrambled to put plans in place to evacuate citizens.
On Wednesday, Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern announced they planned to evacuate Australian and New Zealand citizens from Wuhan, with the countries working together to do so. The two nations are currently working through details of a joint evacuation plan.
This came after researchers in Melbourne announced they had developed a lab-grown version of the virus, which could prove very helpful in the creation of a vaccine.
Scientists at @TheDohertyInst have successfully grown the Wuhan #coronavirus from a patient sample. This significant milestone will facilitate development of new diagnostic tests, vaccine development, and provision of international reference standards → https://t.co/2Uxk2M7mHD pic.twitter.com/WABhF0nOAG
— University of Melbourne (@UniMelb) January 29, 2020
Meanwhile, in what was believed to be the first human-to-human transmission in Europe, German officials announced a German man had been infected by a colleague. Of particular concern was that the woman who had the virus initially had no symptoms when she transferred it to her colleague.
Since then, Vietnam and Japan have also recorded human-to-human transmission.
On Thursday, planes carrying Japanese and American evacuees landed in Japan and the US. Two passengers on the flight to Japan showed symptoms of pneumonia, but it was unclear whether they were infected with the virus. Two more were admitted to hospital and seven others with symptoms such as coughs and fever are undergoing tests.
Everyone on the US flight passed a health screening test in Anchorage, where the plane stopped to refuel.
A number of airlines have announced they are scaling back or cancelling flights to China. Air New Zealand is continuing to fly to China but announced on Friday it would be scaling back its Shanghai service. Qantas is also continuing normal operations of flights but is offering full refunds for customers who bought tickets to, from or via China on or before 24 January.
The death toll climbed again on Thursday, and while there have been persistent doubts that the death toll had been accurately reported by Chinese officials, those concerns grew amid reports Chinese authorities had been cremating bodies in secret.
On Friday, the World Health Organisation declared a global emergency amid concern for the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems which are ill-prepared to deal with it.
