Several countries, across the globe, are on alert over the spread of the outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus, which emerged in Wuhan, a city in China. Within weeks, the virus has killed nine people, sickened hundreds and spread as far as the United States.
Wuhan has been on high alert since the number of confirmed infections surged into the hundreds earlier this week.
China’s National Health Commission confirmed this week the virus can be transmitted between people, after Wuhan health authorities maintained for two weeks that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.”
The virus — which can infect humans and animals — has since spread to Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States. Officials in Washington State confirmed the first case on US soil Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the city of Macau also reported its first confirmed case of the virus. The patient is said to be a businesswoman who arrived from Wuhan over the weekend.
Authorities in many places, including Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the US, Russia and Japan have stepped up screening of air passengers from Wuhan.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, the World Health Organization’s emergency committee is meeting to assess the global risks posed by the virus and decide if it should be declared an international public health emergency – as happened with swine flu and Ebola.
The virus, known also as 2019-nCoV, is understood to be a new strain of coronavirus that has not previously been identified in humans. The Sars virus that killed nearly 800 people globally in the early 2000s was also a coronavirus.
Signs of infection with the new virus include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, and shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
