A person wearing mask walks in Clinic of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the Peking University People's Hospital in Beijing on Monday. Photo: Li Hao/GT

China has adopted strict preventative plans and made great efforts to treat patients, besides closely monitoring the situation," said Geng Shuang, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, at a routine press conference on Monday. 

Authorities were dealing with the outbreak "with the utmost seriousness and professionalism," Geng noted. 

To prevent the virus spreading farther, Wuhan has adopted measures for those who leave the city and China will continue its close communication with other countries and regions, Geng said.

Coronavirus cases have been reported in regions and countries such as China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. 

Chinese officials and experts repeatedly emphasized that the virus has a low risk of human-to-human transmission, a low death rate and that China has improved its infectious disease research, surveillance and diagnosis capabilities since the SARS outbreak in 2002-03. 

Cities on alert 

Although China has made major breakthroughs in responding to infectious diseases since the outbreak of SARS, analysts said it should stay cautious as the cause of the virus has not been identified while major cities have stepped up control measures. 

Wuhan has set up body temperature sensors and temperature checkpoints at railways, train stations and airport. Those who leave Wuhan with a fever need to be registered and receive medical services. Public transportation vehicles have been put under daily disinfection, according to Wuhan media reports. 

Beijing has strengthened internal medical communication, checks and training of medical staff, according to the capital city's health commission.

Wang Yuedan, a professor of the department with the department of immunology at Peking University, told the Global Times on Monday that it was "very likely" the number of confirmed cases would rise, but the risk of a SARS-style outbreak was "very low."

Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times on Monday that Novel coronavirus-related pneumonia does not have as high a death rate as SARS and there was no "super spreader" to infect so many people.

"We identified the new virus in a very short time, which illustrates our improved overall ability," Zeng said.

"We found the new coronavirus independently in about 10 days, but during the SARS epidemic crisis, it was foreign experts who found the virus after around three months."

China has established a system for the early detection of 300 known pathogens and the screening, identification and detection of unknown pathogens, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The country has also set up the world's largest network of laboratories for pathogen spectrum monitoring of infectious disease symptoms, the ministry said.

This includes 12 core labs, 91 provincial-level key labs and about 800 hospital labs focusing on detecting the cause of illnesses of the respiratory tract, diarrhea, fever with a rash, fever and bleeding and encephalitis meningitis, the ministry said in a statement on its website on Monday. 

More time was needed to figure out the source of the coronavirus, Chinese analysts said. 

"The outbreak was initially detected in a seafood market, but was localized. There have not been many outbreaks in seafood and poultry markets, making it difficult to indentify common characteristics," Yang Zhanqiu, a professor with the Pathogen Biology Department at Wuhan University, told the Global Times on Monday. 

Meanwhile, the signs have emerged as the possibility of "human-to-human transmission has not been ruled out by Wuhan or national health authorities and so the Spring Festival travel rush would likely increase the chances of transmission, experts warned. 

The pneumonia can be "transmitted through human-to-human contact," Zhong Nanshan, a predominant Chinese pulmonologist and the lead scientist who helped China battle SARS in 2003, was quoted as saying in a CCTV report on Monday.