Australia's coronavirus outbreak

LATEST ON THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK:

NATIONAL

* A scheduled Qantas flight to Hong Kong on Friday will stay in the city and wait for approval from China to fly into Wuhan to extract stranded Australians, possibly on Sunday or Monday.

* Nine people have contracted the virus after travelling to Australia from Hubei province in central China.

* Authorities say the Australian cases have been relatively mild, with two patients discharged from hospital in NSW

THE WORLD:

* The World Health Organisation has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency but says containment is still possible

* China has 9,692 confirmed coronavirus cases and 213 have died

* There are 98 confirmed cases of infection outside mainland China in at least 18 countries including the nine Australian cases, along with cases in Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, the US and France

* The US has reported its first case of person-to-person transmission; Germany, Vietnam and Japan have also recorded similar transmissions, which suggest greater potential for the virus to spread further

THE CHRISTMAS ISLAND QUARANTINE CENTRE

* The first Australian Medical Assistance Teams will arrive on Christmas Island on Friday

* Australian evacuees from China's virus zone will be kept in quarantine there for two weeks

* The island's field hospital will be set to provide critical care, including a negative pressure room and isolation capacity

FLIGHTS FROM CHINA:

* Australia will not ban inbound flights from China at this stage, but flights from the virus epicentre of Wuhan have been halted

* The World Health Organisation has not recommended nations ban flights from China

AUSTRALIA'S LAST FLIGHT FROM WUHAN:

* Authorities have traced every passenger that arrived in Australia on the last flight allowed to land from Wuhan a week ago

* Some of the confirmed cases involved people on that flight

* All passengers on that flight have been ordered to isolate themselves

TRAVEL WARNINGS:

* The Australian government is advising people to reconsider travel to China and not go to Hubei province

(Sources: China's National Health Commission, Australian Chief Medical Officer and state chief health officers)