Doctors and nurses are at high risk from coronavirus, according to a new case series from China, where 29% of consecutive cases were health professionals.

The largest published case series to date reported on the clinical features of 138 patients with confirmed 2019-nC0V admitted in January to the Zhongman Hospital, a tertiary teaching hospital in Wuhan.

Some 40 of the patients were healthcare workers attending wards where a possible source of infection could be tracked, according to the article.

In addition, another 17 patients who were hospitalised for other reasons acquired the infection via human-to-human transmission, bringing the total hospital-acquired cases to 57 (41%), the Chinese specialists said.