The coronavirus outbreak has sparked a health scare across the world. The virus was diagnosed first in December in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in China and has spread to most parts of the world.

According to the officials in China, the death toll from the deadly virus has reached to 636, with the total number of cases now standing over 31,000. The virus has spread to more than 25 countries, including India.

Health authorities around the world are taking action to prevent a global pandemic as the virus continues to spread, with cases reported in Australia, France, the United States and seven Asian countries besides China.

The health care system in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, has been overwhelmed with the thousands of ill patients. A new, 1,500-bed hospital specially built for virus patients opened days after a 1,000-bed hospital with prefabricated wards and isolation rooms began taking patients after the outbreak of the virus.

The US, Australia, and Singapore have temporarily shut their doors to non-citizens who have recently traveled to China. Vietnam has also barred all flights to and from China.

Many countries, including India, the US, Germany, Iran and Sri Lanka have repatriated their citizens from China. 

India has reported three cases of the coronavirus. All three patients from Kerala recently returned from the affected Wuhan city. The three students, including a woman medico, from the state who studied in Wuhan university had tested positive for the virus in Thrissur, Alappuzha and Kasaragod districts in the last few days. The Kerala government has declared the outbreak a ' state calamity'.

Currently, 647 Indians and seven Maldivians who have been evacuated from Wuhan and Hubei province are in 14-day quarantine at a medical camp in Manesar, near Delhi.

On February 2, India temporarily suspended e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China in view of the coronavirus outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

However, the World Health Organisation said that the outbreak of the virus does not yet constitute a "pandemic". Sylvie Briand, head of WHO's Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, said that the virus is at the phase where it is "an epidemic with multiple foci."

Japan quarantined a cruise ship carrying 3,711 people and was testing those onboard for the new coronavirus after a former passenger was diagnosed with the illness in Hong Kong.

Eight people on the vessel, that arrived in Yokohama Bay, reportedly have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, chills, loss of appetite, body ache and nausea among others

Quarantine officials have been checking the condition of everyone on board and testing those with symptoms of illness for the new coronavirus, as well as other infectious diseases, including malaria and Dengue fever, health ministry official in Japan said.

UK pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said it was joining a global race to develop a vaccine for a new strain of a coronavirus that has killed more than 360 people. The UK government also pledged GBP 20 million (USD 26 million, 24 million euros) in funding for research at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a group formed at the Davos in 2017, and released its sequencing data for the viral genome. GSK said its work will complement the four projects already being funded through CEPI to develop a vaccine for the deadly China strain.

As the deadly coronavirus has spread worldwide, it has carried with it xenophobia -- and Asian communities around the world are finding themselves subject to suspicion and fear. There has been a spike in reports of anti-Chinese rhetoric directed at people of Asian origin, regardless of whether they have ever visited the centre of the epidemic or been in contact with the virus.