Four more cases of coronavirus cases were reported in NSW on Tuesday, including in a man who had recently travelled to Singapore.
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"We are seeing quite an escalation of diagnoses of the virus," NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
NSW Health authorities also confirmed the medic diagnosed on Monday was a doctor, working at Ryde Hospital where he saw a range of patients. Patients who had seen him in the past 14 days should self-isolate, they said. Healthcare workers with whom he was in close contact had also been put into self-quarantine.
They still don't know where he caught the disease, given he had not travelled overseas and no cases were known among his patients.
The new cases were:
- A 39-year-old man who travelled from Iran on Friday, February 28, via Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
- A 53-year-old man returned from Singapore also on Friday February 28.
- Two females, both in their 60s, one from South Korea and another from Japan.
As of 5.30pm Tuesday, NSW had 13 cases with Australia's total at 38. The ACT has reported no cases, 146 people testing negative, at 4.30pm on Tuesday.
Globally, case numbers will shortly top 100,000. The Johns Hopkins University real-time mapper showed 90,936 cases on Tuesday afternoon. Deaths stand at 3117.
The worst affected countries remain China (80,151 cases, 2944 deaths), South Korea (4812 cases, 28 deaths), Italy (2036 cases, 52 deaths), and Iran (1501 cases, 66 deaths).
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said authorities were struggling to track down people on flights of infected people, given people didn't always fill in their arrival cards in sufficient detail, and given the time it took Border Force to provide the cards.
Earlier on Tuesday, a 20-year-old Chinese man was diagnosed in Queensland. He had spent two weeks in Dubai en route from China and was reported to be a student following the advice to remain outside China for two weeks before coming to Australia.
Mr Hazzard said the NSW cases were all "generally going reasonably well", and were self-isolated at home.
He reiterated his advice for people not to shake hands. And he said "when you think you've washed your hands enough, double it".
Earlier in the day, Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy contradicted Mr Hazzard's call, saying people should practice "social distancing" from people who had recently returned from affected countries overseas but did not need to avoid hand-shaking more generally.
The Guardian reports that on Tuesday an Air Asia flight was met by paramedics when it landed in Melbourne, after a passenger showed symptoms. The passenger was quarantined.
Kirsten Lawson
It's about the truth for me. That means asking questions. Then asking more questions. On the best days, we get answers.
It's about the truth for me. That means asking questions. Then asking more questions. On the best days, we get answers.
