Chinese officials say the number of confirmed cases of a new and mysterious virus has risen sharply above 200, with cases also being reported in Japan, Thailand and South Korea.
The new coronavirus appears to have its origins in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, a popular transport hub, at a time when many are travelling for the Lunar New Year.
The virus causes symptoms of viral pneumonia, and has already led to several deaths – although officials have said those appear to be where patients had other, underlying health conditions.
Little is known about the new disease which, if confirmed, would be only the seventh coronavirus known to science that can infect humans.
Here’s what we do know about the disease, currently dubbed 2019-nCoV or simply novel coronavirus.
What is coronavirus? And what are the symptoms?
Coronaviruses are a group of virus that cause respiratory infections – diseases ranging from the common cold to SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome). Only six are known to infect humans – the novel disease would be the seventh.
SARS first infected people in southern China in late 2002 and spread to more than two dozen countries, killing nearly 800. The Chinese government initially tried to conceal the severity of the SARS epidemic, but its cover-up was exposed by a high-ranking physician.
The virus causing the current outbreak is different from those previously identified, Chinese scientists said earlier this month. Initial symptoms of the novel coronavirus are mainly fever, health officials said, with some experiencing coughing, tightness of the chest and shortness of breath. Scans on some patients have shown fluid in the lungs consistent with viral pneumonia.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), which was first informed of the cluster of illness in Wuhan on 31 December, said the new disease was isolated for study on the 7 January after other causes like SARS, avian flu and MERS had been ruled out. It said it was closely following the current outbreak.
Is it contagious?
Authorities initially believed that every confirmed case was linked to the seafood market in Wuhan, and that hundreds of people who came into close contact with diagnosed patients were not infected themselves, leading the municipal health commission to maintain that the virus is not easily transmitted between humans.
However, the WHO has said that as the number of cases has risen, some people have fallen ill who had no direct link to the market. “The fact that some cases do not seem to be linked with the seafood market means we cannot exclude the possibility of limited human-to-human transmission,” the WHO’s China office said.
Nonetheless, China’s National Health Commission said experts have judged the current outbreak to be “preventable and controllable.”
“However, the source of the new type of coronavirus has not been found, we do not fully understand how the virus is transmitted, and changes in the virus still need to be closely monitored,” the commission said in a statement Sunday.
How has China responded?
China is putting forth its “utmost efforts to tackle the situation,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Monday.
In addition to promptly raising the issue with the WHO, the government has notified and stayed in contact with other countries in the region and adopted measures to control the flow of people leaving the city.
Some have taken voluntary measures to reduce their risk, with the country currently undergoing the world’s largest human migration as people travel to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
According to posts on the Weibo social media platform, people are sharing prevention advice such as wearing masks and washing hands, eating lightly and avoiding crowded places. Others said they had cancelled their New Year travel plans.
State media praised the apparent evolution of the official response since the deadly SARS outbreak 17 years ago.
“In the early days of SARS, reports were delayed and covered up,” said an editorial in the state-run Global Times. “That kind of thing must not happen again in China.”
“We have made great strides in medicine, social affairs management and public opinion since 2003,” the editorial added.
The WHO said it was reassured by the authorities’ response, and that it did not see the need for any further recommendations against travel to China at this time.
And what about outside China?
At least half a dozen countries in Asia and three US airports have started screening incoming airline passengers from central China.
Videos posted online showed people in protective suits checking one-by-one the temperatures of plane passengers arriving in Macao, a Chinese special administrative region, from Wuhan. A man surnamed Yang who works for the Macao Health Bureau confirmed over the phone that such checks are indeed taking place in the southern Chinese region.
Authorities in Thailand and in Japan have already identified at least three cases, all involving recent travel from China. The WHO said contact tracing efforts were underway and, in Japan, the government was coordinating across ministries to assess and contain the risk of outbreak.
South Korea reported its first case on Monday, when a 35-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan tested positive for the new coronavirus one day after arriving at Seoul’s Incheon airport. The woman has been isolated at a state-run hospital in Incheon city, just west of Seoul, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
Additional reporting by agencies
