Image Source: TRIBUNE

A Washington state man who recently travelled to China has been diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus, becoming the first confirmed US case of the newly identified illness that has killed nine people in China and sickened over 400 others across Asia.

The patient, identified only as a man in his 30s, fell ill over the weekend after traveling to his hometown in China and was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Monday, Washington Governor Jay Inslee told reporters at a press conference in Seattle.

"This is not a moment of high anxiety," Inslee said, reporting that the man was listed in satisfactory condition at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington and not known to have infected anyone else.

"This is a low risk. It appears to have a transmission vector that really should not prevent anyone from going anywhere in Snohomish County, except maybe the isolation ward at the hospital," Inslee said.