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Everything You Need to Know About Coronavirus
The spread of China’s coronavirus may have started with something simple — a person buying food for dinner at an outdoor market.
The potency and movement of the virus has rallied the cooperation of various agencies, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization, 1 .
What is the Wuhan coronavirus?
The infection numbers are startling: Since Jan. 20, cases worldwide have surged from 282 to 9,925. The death toll stands at 213, according to Chinese officials.
The current coronavirus doesn’t have an official name yet. 2 .
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Outbreaks like this have happened before, most notably with SARS in 2003 and MERS in 2015. 4 . In all, 8,098 SARS cases were recorded, with a death toll of 774. That’s a fatality rate of 9.6%. MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, originated in Saudi Arabia and resulted in 2,499 cases and 861 deaths, giving it a higher fatality rate of 34.5%.
With current numbers, the fatality rate for 2019-nCoV is 2.4%. The WHO said most coronavirus cases reported to date “have been milder, with about 20% of those infected experiencing severe illness.”
Are people quarantined (隔离)?
5 . An estimated 56 million people in the country are affected by lock-downs.
Wuhan has been the hardest hit. Airports and railway stations are closed and public transportation halted. Private vehicles are banned. Residents wear face masks to protect against infection. While a new, 1,000-bed hospital is under construction, there are shortages of medicine, protective masks and other supplies.
A. which closed a city of 11 million, leaped across continents and raised pandemic fears
B. which declared the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” on Thursday
C. How does coronavirus compare to SARS, MERS and the common flu
D. Is the virus just a problem for China
E. As infection numbers rise, China has ordered residents in nearly a dozen cities to stay where they are
F. SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is commonly used as a reference in coronavirus coverage, since both originated in China and share characteristics
G. The current designation is “2019-nCoV”, with “2019” for year of discovery, “n” for novel (meaning new) and “CoV” for coronavirus
