Auckland University is advising students on measures to reduce the risk of coronavirus.

There have been reports an Auckland tertiary student has been quarantined with a cough, after returning from China.

The University sent an email this week telling students they are "taking precautions".

They've asked students who feel unwell to stay away from campus for 14 days - and told them to restrict non-essential travel to China.

Anyone who has travelled to a country affected by the virus has also been asked to stay away.

Reports of the student’s isolation come as the Government prepares to evacuate Kiwis at the epicentre of the crisis in China.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said they would be quarantined in New Zealand, not on Christmas Island like Australians evacuees.

"We are looking at the quarantine options within New Zealand already, we are working on that," Peters said. He said the government would be able to provide information on where when it had made a choice.

There are 53 New Zealanders registered as being in Wuhan and Peters said extracting them was a complex issue. The criteria for getting on an evacuation flight were still being worked out.

A student accommodation provider, who asked not to be named, said the male student was coughing when he arrived at his accommodation on Tuesday from Hubei Province, the epicentre of China's coronavirus epidemic.

The accommodation provider sent him to the hospital, which is understood to have to have taken tissue swabs that have been sent to Australia for analysis.

"He is in isolation right now at Auckland Hospital."

Public health authorities said they would not comment on individual cases, but that there were no confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Zealand.

Dr Caroline McElnay, director of public health at the Ministry of Health, said there weren't any cases that have "met the definition of a suspected case" but did not directly comment on whether anyone was in isolation.

Confirmed cases of the virus have now been identified in Australia, the US, Canada and 12 other countries.