While Chinese health officials announced a sharp increase in the number of people infected and killed by a new coronavirus that causes respiratory illness, Queensland officials say a man there is out of the woods.

The man "is out of isolation, fully recovered and showing no ongoing symptoms", according to a Queensland Health spokesperson.  The man had traveled through Wuhan City in China, where scientists believe the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV first made the jump from animals to humans several weeks ago.  Other travelers carried it from Wuhan to Hong Kong, Thailand, Tokyo, South Korea, and Seattle in the United States.

Health officials in China raised the number of known infections to 440 there and abroad, although some suspect there could be many more cases in China now that scientists know 2019-nCoV can be transferred from person-to-person.  Nine deaths in China are attributed to it.  National Health Commission vice-minister Li Bin said there was evidence that the disease was "mainly transmitted through the respiratory tract".