China is quickly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with a new virus that has killed 26 people, made hundreds ill and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities during the country's most important holiday.

Tests for the deadly coronavirus can now be turned around in one day, as four Australians are being assessed after their return from China.

A "reprobate" Sydney scammer who fleeced drought-ravaged farmers by taking money for hay he never delivered has sobbed as he was told he would be jailed.

Four people have been tested for coronavirus in NSW with two patients cleared and another two still awaiting results, authorities say.

Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra confronted Harvey Weinstein from the witness stand, testifying that the former Hollywood studio boss overpowered and raped her.

The death toll from NSW's unprecedented bushfire season has climbed to 25 after the body of a 59-year-old man was found in a home on the state's South Coast.

Authorities have widened a search for the bodies of a couple presumed dead in a light plane crash off Brisbane.

A man who allegedly harassed women at Sydney's Bondi Beach has been arrested in the ocean after a two-hour stand-off with police.

China has put on lockdown two cities at the epicentre of a new coronavirus outbreak that has killed 17 people and infected nearly 600, as health authorities around the world scramble to prevent a global pandemic.

Fear are growing for the safety of a miner who went missing after an earth collapse at Tasmania's Henty Gold Mine early on Thursday morning.