The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Sunday announced it will move the coming women's Olympic football qualifier tournament from the eastern Chinese city Nanjing to Australia following a nationwide outbreak of coronavirus in China.

The schedule of the games will remain the same: from February 3 to 9.

Previously, the AFC decided to move the qualifiers from central Chinese city Wuhan, where the virus-affected cases were first confirmed, to Nanjing.

Four teams, China, Australia, Thailand and Chinese Taipei will be competing in their group, with the top two advancing to the final round.

The four teams in Group A were South Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Vietnam and Myanmar until the DPRK decided to quit the tournament. The top two teams of each group will then attend the final qualifiers to decide which two teams will join the host Japan to participate the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

A total of 1,985 cases of a new strain of coronavirus that causes pneumonia have been confirmed in China as of 9:00 a.m. BJT on Sunday. Fifty-six have died from the virus so far.

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the CFA reached out to multiple domestic local football associations to see which city can take over. There were also plans of hosting the qualifiers in enclosed stadiums in Wuhan or moving it out of China.

China will meet Thailand first on February 3, then take on Chinese Taipei on February 6. On February 9, China will play their biggest rival, Australia.