The Public Health Ministry on Friday confirmed Thailand's first case of person-to-person transmission of the novel coronavirus, bringing the number of cases to 19, the highest of all countries after China.

The virus was contracted by a local taxi driver who had never travelled to China.

He was one of the five new confirmed cases, bringing the total number of people infected by the virus in Thailand to 19.

The four other new patients were Chinese nationals travelling from Wuhan, while the other 11 were either Chinese tourists or Thais who had visited the Chinese city, where the outbreak of the respiratory illness began.

Doctors believe the taxi driver was possibly exposed to the virus when he drove a Chinese national to hospital. The Chinese citizen was one of the confirmed coronavirus cases, who recovered and was discharged.

Human-to-human transmission of the virus has also been confirmed in other countries, including Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Separately, the government is working on arranging a flight to evacuate Thais from virus-prone areas in China, though the date of the operation still needs to be set.

Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Air Asia has offered to send a plane to pick up 161 Thais living in Wuhan and nearby areas as soon as China gives it the go-ahead.