Health authorities in China say 81 people in the country have died from pneumonia after infected with the new coronavirus. More than 2,700 others have been confirmed to be infected.

Experts are warning that those carrying the virus could be spreading it to others during the incubation period before their own symptoms appear. That's making it extremely difficult to contain the outbreak.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he plans to add the new coronavirus to the list of designated infectious diseases.

Abe was speaking to a Lower House committee on Monday.

Japan's transport minister says he is stepping up measures against a possible outbreak of the latest coronavirus. Kazuyoshi Akaba pledged an all-out effort for the expected spike in visitors from China during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The government is urging airlines and cruise ships to distribute a "health card" to all those arriving from China. The card directs people to quarantine officers if they have come from Wuhan and have symptoms, or are taking medicine for pain.

A quarantine station at Chubu international airport in central Japan is stepping up efforts to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus linked to a pneumonia outbreak in China.

The airport in Aichi Prefecture has five direct flights per week to and from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where an outbreak of pneumonia first emerged last month.

Experts say there's no need to be overly alarmed by the first confirmed case of a new coronavirus infection in Japan. But they also call for vigilance.

Nobuhiko Okabe, head of the Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health, says it's clear where the patient was infected as he had visited Wuhan. He also says human-to-human transmission has been very limited so far.