AKIPRESS.COM - A man in his 50s in Melbourne has become the first confirmed case of novel coronavirus in Australia, with two further “probable infections” being treated in New South Wales, The Guardian reports.

Victoria’s health minister, Jenny Mikakos, said the man, a Chinese national, arrived in Melbourne at 9am on Sunday 19 January on China Southern Airlines Flight No CZ321 from Guangzhou.

The man tested positive early on Saturday morning. He had visited a GP on Thursday and went the Monash medical centre at Clayton on Friday, where he was put into isolation.

The man showed no symptoms on the flight, “so may not have been contagious” at the time, Mikakos said. But “out of an abundance of caution” health officials were contacting everybody who was on the plane.

Eleven countries have now confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), 41 people have died and more than 1,000 have been infected.

“There is no reason for alarm in the general community,” Mikakos said. “We have strict protocols that are in place in terms of how we deal with these infectious disease outbreaks.”