WATCH | Chinese city Wuhan closed as WHO mulls 'global emergency'

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it will decide on Thursday whether to declare a global emergency over the outbreak of the coronavirus spreading from China.

If it does, it will be the sixth international emergency to be declared in the past decade.

Deaths from the virus rose to 17 on Wednesday, with more than 540 cases confirmed.

The previously unknownstrain is believed to have emerged from an animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Cases have cropped up in Beijing, Shanghai, South Korea and Japan, with at least one in the US.