Asia taking no chances with new China virus as WHO meeting looms

Countries around the Asia-Pacific and beyond are stepping up their defences against a new coronavirus that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December and is now known to have infected at least 440 people on the mainland as well as a handful of others overseas.

Cases of what is currently being called 2019-nCOVhave now been confirmed in South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Macau and the United States.

“Given travel patterns and increased testing, more cases of 2019-nCOV should be expected in other parts of China and possibly other countries in coming days,” a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) told Al Jazeera in a statement.