Australia's Kane Richardson quarantined, to miss first ODI against NZ

Australia's pacer Kane Richardson has been quarantined after reporting a sore throat and will miss the first ODI against New Zealand.

The pacer informed the team's medical staff Thursday night of the complaint and has been tested for COVID-19, with the results still pending.

With Kane missing the first ODI, pacer Sean Abbott has joined the squad as cover.

"Our medical staff are treating this a typical throat infection but we are following Australian Government protocols that require us to keep Kane away from other members of the squad and perform the appropriate tests given he has returned from international travel in the last 14 days," cricket.com.au quoted a Cricket Australia spokesperson as saying.

"Once we receive the results of the tests and Kane recovers in the next few days we expect he will re-join the team. We will not be making further comment until something changes," he added.

Earlier in the day, Cricket Australia had announced that the ODI series between Australia and New Zealand will be played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The first ODI will be played later today.

The coronavirus disease was first detected in Wuhan in China's Hubei province, in late December, and has since spread worldwide.

More than 127,000 people have been infected with COVID-19, with over 4,700 having died and 68,000 recovered.

About 600 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the United Kingdom with eight fatalities, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

On Wednesday, World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the COVID-19 outbreak could be characterised as a pandemic.