Warnings for coronavirus have started popping up outside medical centres, train stations and office buildings in Sydney.
The amount of public notices are expected to increase around the city heading into flu season.
The signs have cautioned the community to be wary of which public spaces they enter amid the deadly coronavirus epidemic.
Coronavirus has infected 23 people in Australia, eight of whom caught the virus aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
Warnings for coronavirus have started popping up outside medical centres, train stations and office buildings in Sydney. Pictured: A sign outside Downing Centre Local and District Court in Sydney's CBD
Coronavirus has infected 23 people in Australia, eight of whom caught the virus aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan
Coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people globally and can cause severe lung damage and trigger multiple organ failure
Sydney's Downing Centre Local and District Court placed a warning letter outside its building in the CBD on Thursday morning.
'Department of Communities and Justice has a duty of care to ensure the safety and wellbeing of persons in the workplace,' the sign read.
'Do not enter premises if you or someone you have been in close contact with has returned from travel from mainland China, including Hubei Province in the last 14 days.
'Please be alert to any changes in your health if you have travelled from Asia, in particular China, Japan, Thailand and South Korea.'
The notice went on to describe the symptoms of the deadly virus, and urged the public to seek medical attention if they suffer from any signs of the illness.
It comes a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us'.
Mr Morrison instructed Health Minister Greg Hunt to identify 'gaps in capabilities' within Australia's state-based health services to combat the spread of the deadly illness from China.
'We believe that the risk of a pandemic is very much upon us,' he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
AUSTRALIA'S VIRUS PLAN
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the risk of a global coronavirus pandemic impacting Australia is likely, releasing the government's Australian Health Management Plan on Thursday.
The government is currently at the 'Initial action stage' which includes:
* Health Minister Greg Hunt assumes powers under Biosecurity Act.
* Enhanced border screening measures and communications with incoming travellers.
* Medical stockpiles deployed to states and territories ready for use.
* Potential outbreaks investigated.
* National response coordinated with states and territories.
The declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organisation or evidence of a large-scale, sustained transmission of the virus in Australia will move the government to a 'Targeted action stage', which would see:
* Department of Health coordinating response from National Incident Room.
* Health services surging staff numbers.
* Items from the National Medical Stockpile distributed to health services.
* Consideration of any border or social distancing measures.
* Response could be scaled up or down based on spread of virus.
If infection numbers reach a level that it can be contained by normal healthcare services, government moves to 'Standdown stage', which includes:
* Replenishing medical stockpiles.
* Resuming elective or non-urgent medical procedures.
* Monitoring for second wave of virus.
'We need to take the steps necessary to prepare for such a pandemic.'
Australian Border Force is drawing up plans for extra measures at airports and shipping ports to ensure travellers suspected of having the virus can be quarantined or self-quarantined quickly.
'As this spreads we are going to have to monitor the hotspots around the world for coronavirus and overlay that with travel patterns,' ABF commisioner Michael Outram told Sky News.
'It's hard to travel directly to Australia so that gives us some choke points that we can focus on.'
It comes a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us'. Pictured with Minister for Health Greg Hunt (left) and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly (right)
Professor Ian Mackay, from the University of Queensland, issued a stark warning about the future of the virus, saying it is unlikely it will ever be contained and the world should prepare for the worst.
'We're likely to have the virus become what we call an endemic virus, or a virus that's just with us for life,' he told The Australian.
'At some point in the coming months or years we're all going to get infected because we've all been infected by these other endemic viruses.'
The World Health Organisation has not yet formally declared a global pandemic, but Mr Morrison said Australia was operating on the basis that there is one.
CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 23
NEW SOUTH WALES: 4
January 25
Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China contracted the disease.
Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.
They were treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital
January 27
A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.
The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.
VICTORIA: 7
January 25
A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.
The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.
He was quarantined at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne's east.
January 29
A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.
He became unwell on January 23 - two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre.
January 30
A woman in her 40s is found to have coronavirus.
She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.
She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
February 1
A woman in her 20s in Melbourne is found to have the virus
February 22
Two passengers taken off the Diamond Princess cruise ship test positive
February 25
Third passenger taken off the cruise ship tests positive
QUEENSLAND: 8
January 29
Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national was diagnosed with the virus. He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital.
January 30
A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition.
February 4
An eight-year-old boy was diagnosed with coronavirus. He is also from the tour group where the other Queensland cases came from
February 5
A 37-year-old man, who was a member of a group of nine Chinese tourists in quarantine on the Gold Coast, also tested positive
February 6
A 37-year-old woman was diagnosed with coronavirus from the same travel group that flew to Queensland from Melbourne on January 27
February 21
Two Queensland women, aged 54 and 55, tested positive for COVID-19 and will be flown to Brisbane for further treatment.
A 57-year-old woman from Queensland also tested positive for the virus
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 3
February 1
A Chinese couple in their 60s who arrived in Adelaide from Wuhan to visit relatives are confirmed to have coronavirus.
A 24-year-old woman from South Australia was transferred to Royal Adelaide Hospital
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: 1
February 21
A 78-year-old man from Western Australia was transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth. On February 28, he was taken into intensive care in a 'serious' condition
DIAMOND PRINCESS CRUISE SHIP: 8
Of the 23 overall cases in Australia, eight contracted the disease on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which had gone into quarantine in the Japanese port of Yokohama
They tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving at the Manigurr-ma Village Howard Springs facility in Darwin, and are now being treated in their home states
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Coronavirus notices appear in train stations, medical centres and office buildings around Sydney
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