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BEIJING (Reuters) - An outbreak of a new coronavirus has spread to more Chinese cities, including the capital Beijing and Shanghai, authorities said on Monday, and a fourth case has been reported beyond China’s borders.
World News
January 20, 2020
BEIJING (Reuters) - An outbreak of a new coronavirus has spread to more Chinese cities, including the capital Beijing and Shanghai, authorities said on Monday, and a fourth case has been reported beyond China’s borders.
China’s National Health Commission confirmed that the virus, which causes a type of pneumonia, can pass from person-to-person, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
South Korea on Monday confirmed its first case, a 35-year-old Chinese national who had traveled from Wuhan, the fourth patient reported outside China.
Last week, two cases were reported in Thailand and one in Japan. All three involved people from Wuhan or who recently visited the city.
A report by London Imperial College’s MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis estimated that by Jan. 12 there were 1,723 cases in Wuhan City with onset of related symptoms. Chinese health authorities have not commented directly on the report.
......seafood market in Wuhan, China. Officials believe the market is linked with an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new virus.
Investigation into how the virus is spread is ongoing, but "from the information that we have, it is possible that there is limited human-to-human transmission, potentially among families," Maria Van Kerkhove, acting head of WHO's emerging diseases unit, said in a news conference, according to Reuters. "But it is very clear right now that we have no sustained human-to-human transmission."
Can it spread among people?
Yes, but not easily. Tests in the UK have confirmed the virus passed from a man to his son. Another family member also picked up the infection.
How dangerous is it?
So far, six of the 12 people known to have contracted the virus globally have died from the illness. But the risk of infection is very low, because the virus does not spread easily. If it were highly transmissible, there would be far more cases, particularly among hospital staff. For the latest information, see the World Health Organisation updates. The virus is fairly fragile, lasting only about 24 hours outside the body. It is destroyed by detergents and most cleaning products.
Many have probably heard about the virus that causes pneumonia like symptoms happening in China. The reason I am posting this is due to the Chinese Lunar new year where many Chinese traditionally travel overseas to party or leave the cities to visit back in a home province....great opportunity for this to spread IMO.
I wonder what it would take to impose a ban on all air travel to and from China?