Beijing, Jan 19 (AP/UNB) — Seventeen more people in central China have been diagnosed with a new form of viral pneumonia that has killed two patients and placed other countries on alert.

Four more cases have been identified in a viral pneumonia outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that has killed two people and prompted countries as far away as the United States to take precautionary measures.

A second person has died from a new coronavirus that has caused an outbreak of pneumonia in central China, health authorities said.