The World Health Organisation will hold an emergency summit today to decide whether to declare the outbreak of the new Wuhan virus as global health emergency.
Its latest analysis suggests a growing number of deaths and seriously ill patients.
WHO said there had now been six deaths in Wuhan city. Out of 282 patients with confirmed illness, 12 are in critical condition and 51 are severely ill.
The British government has warned travellers from China to alert their local medical services if they develop a respiratory infection on return. They are likely to face isolation procedures. The advice applies mainly to visitors to Wuhan but WHO identified clusters of cases in Guangdong Province – 14 – and Beijing – 5.
Patients from Wuhan have also surfaced in Thailand, Japan and Korea.
Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the medical research charity Wellcome, said the outbreak had become "extremely concerning."
He said: "Person to person transmission has been confirmed and, as expected, we are seeing rapidly increasing case numbers across China, and in more countries, with health care workers infected.
"The World Health Organisation’s role is to ensure the global public health response to any new outbreak is rapid, robust and comprehensive. Given the geographic spread of cases, calling the emergency committee to consider whether to declare an international public health emergency should now be a part of this process.
“The speed with which this virus has been identified is testament to changes in public health in China since SARS and strong global coordination through the WHO. However, we know there is more to come from this outbreak – and with travel being a huge part of the fast approaching Chinese New Year, it is right that concern levels are at the highest level.
“A major concern is the range of severity of symptoms this virus is causing. It is clear some people are being affected and are infectious while experiencing only very mild symptoms or possibly without experiencing symptoms at all (asymptomatic). This may be masking the true numbers infected and the extent of person to person transmission. It is a matter of urgency to work this out."
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