A new strain of coronavirus is spreading around the world after contaminating food at a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Up until now, the death toll stands at 41, with 1,287 people infected.

Outside of China, the virus has spread to the US, Australia, France, and several Asian countries, including South Korea, Japan, and Thailand.

Now there is a Level 3 - Avoid nonessential Travel warning for the Hubei Province of China, where the city of Wuhan is located.

As of Saturday, nearly 1,300 people have been infected across China, the bulk of them in and around Wuhan.

It has triggered a cause of concern for India too as numerous 700-odd Indian students studying in universities of Wuhan and Hubei provinces are still stuck there.

Health authorities are reminding people of the simple things they can do to reduce their risk of contracting the disease.

Schools in Hong Kong that are now on Lunar New Year holidays will remain closed until 17 February.

"We have confirmed a case of the 2019 novel coronavirus in Victoria - the first in Australia".

"I'd like to thank each of these three people because they have been exemplary in the way that they presented themselves, to have a medical test, and to have the necessary pathology in due course, when it was appropriate from the medical practitioners' point of view", NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazard said, reported Fairfax. The department also closed the consulate there.

Travel agencies have been told to halt all group tours, the state-owned English-language China Daily newspaper reported, citing the China Association of Travel Services.

In an illustration of how such efforts could miss cases, doctors at a Paris hospital said that two of the three Chinese nationals in France who have been diagnosed with the virus had arrived in the country without showing symptoms.

As of Friday, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the US and Vietnam had all confirmed coronavirus cases.

China has also ordered nationwide measures to identify and immediately isolate suspected cases of the deadly virus on trains, aeroplanes and buses and follow up with disinfection procedures.

Authorities said they were contacting people who had traveled on the same plane from China and offering advice.

US coffee chain Starbucks said it was closing all its outlets in Hubei province for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, following a similar move by McDonald's in five Hubei cities.

Queensland authorities say they are still waiting on results from a possible case as of late Saturday, AAP reported.

The vast majority of cases have been in and around Wuhan or involved people who visited the city or had personal connections to those infected.

Those who have made voluntary reports should collaborate with customs officers in following health quarantine which involves temperature screening, medical checks and medical investigation, said the statement.

NYU also has a campus in Shanghai and said it recommended to students there not to travel to the Wuhan region. He was confirmed as positive at 2.15am today following a series of tests.

French authorities reported Europe's first confirmed cases on Friday evening.

Wuhan has to date been centralising its treatment of the new virus by isolating patients in 61 clinics and designated hospitals.