Third case of coronavirus confirmed as eight-year-old boy

An eight-year-old boy has been diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus, making him the third confirmed case in Queensland. He was travelling in the same tour group as the other two people in the state already confirmed to have the potentially deadly virus.

AN eight-year-old boy has been diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus, making him the third confirmed case in Queensland.

The boy was travelling with a nine-member Chinese tour group, which includes the only other known cases of the new virus in the state. He’s believed to be the only child among the 13 cases in Australia diagnosed so far.

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The boy, from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, is not believed to be related to Queensland’s other confirmed cases, a 44-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman.

All nine members of the Chinese tour group have been in isolation in the Gold Coast University Hospital since last Wednesday, when the man was diagnosed with the virus.

They arrived on the Gold Coast from Melbourne on Tigerair flight TT566 on January 27.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the boy’s condition was stable.

It brings the number of confirmed cases in Australia up to 13: 4 in New South Wales, four in Victoria, two in South Australia, and three in Queensland.

The Chinese tour group the boy was part of travelled from Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei Province, via Singapore, into Melbourne, on January 22.

It’s unclear at this stage whether he caught the virus in Wuhan or while travelling in Australia with the other two infected members of his tour group.

So far, the novel coronavirus has killed more than 400 people and infected more than 20,000, mostly in China.

Under national protocols, introduced at the weekend, people returning to Australia from China and Hong Kong are expected to isolate themselves for 14 days as part of “precautionary” measures to contain the virus.