Nervous markets and citizens – from Sydney to Belfast – are awaiting to see if the fatal outbreak of a new coronavirus strain rises to a global health emergency, as the number of suspected cases in Australia grows.

Six people in Australia – four in NSW and two in Queensland – were in quarantine on Friday and tested for the virus, which had killed at least 26 people in China and infected at least 876 there and about 14 in other Asian countries. There is one confirmed infection in the US. So far, no cases of the disease have been confirmed in Australia.