Medical authorities can now confirm that there is evidence of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus.
Four people have died after contracting a respiratory disease caused by the virus, which is similar to the strain that sparked the SARS epidemic in 2003.
The start of the coronavirus outbreak has been traced to a fish market in Wuhan, China, last December.
Scientists are still unsure of the method of transmission, but have evidence that person-to-person contagion has occurred.