At least one family has requested that a doctor of Asian appearance not treat their child, as Australian medical staff feel the effects of racism over coronavirus.

The director of emergency medicine at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital has confirmed that frontline workers have been subjected to such behaviour amid an environment of “paranoia and fear” over the coronavirus.

“We became aware of this a week ago. One of our staff came forward and let us know that she’d been approached by the family of a child that she was going to be treating, and the parents had requested that she not treat their child because of their concerns she might have coronavirus,” Dr Stuart Lewena told 3AW.

“That was clearly a comment made purely on her racial appearance.