MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. The first case of novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV, which already killed dozens of people in China and infected more than a thousand, has been detected in the Australian state of Victoria, ABC reported on Saturday.

According to the channel, the infected person is a Chinese citizen, who recently visited the infection’s epicenter, the Chinese city of Wuhan. He arrived to Ausralia in January.

The man has been admitted to a Melbourne houspital and is in stable condition.

The health authority of another Australian state, New South Wales, confirmed that five people are undergoing medical tests for suspected 2019-nCoV infection. Two were discharged from hospital with negative results.

On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of the new type of pneumonia in Wuhan, a city with a population of more than 11 million people. The culprit - 2019-nCoV coronavirus - was identified on January 7, 2020.

According to latest reports, a total of 41 people died of pneumonia caused by the virus, about 1,300 people have been infected.

The coronavirus has also been detected in Vietnam, South Korea, the United States, Singapore and Japan. France became the first European country to detect the virus on its territory, with three cases reported on Friday night.