Coronavirus Poses Serious Global Threats

The number of cases of the new type of coronavirus continues to grow. Meanwhile, the death toll now has exceeded 1,000. This outbreak is expected to end in April.

REUTERS

Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects the novel coronavirus prevention and control work at Anhuali Community in Beijing, China, (10/2/2020).

GENEVA, TUESDAY — The death toll from the new coronavirus outbreak exceeded 1,000 in China on Tuesday (11/2/2020). The World Health Organization has warned that the epidemic poses a very serious global threat.

China continues to work hard to deal with the spread of the new coronavirus that has infected more than 42,000 people. The new coronavirus has spread to more than 20 countries around the world.

On Tuesday, as many as 108 deaths were in China. It was the first time the daily death rate had reached three digits since the virus was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China.

"With 99 percent of cases occurring in China, this outbreak is still very urgent for the country, but it has posed a serious threat to the whole world," said the chief of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in Geneva, Switzerland.

2019-nCoV causes disease and is temporarily being called acute respiratory syndrome due to the new type of the coronavirus.

The Chinese government quarantined tens of millions of people in a number of cities. Some countries have banned arrivals from China.

On Tuesday, the total death toll reached 1,016. Despite the large number of deaths, the mortality rate due to the coronavirus is relatively low, at 2.4 percent. In comparison, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS) have mortality rates of 10 percent and 34 percent, respectively. The cause of SARS and MERS is also the coronavirus, but it is different from the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

The coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses, from mild ones like the common cold to serious and deadly illnesses. There are seven types of coronaviruses in humans ranging from Alphacoronavirus to 2019-nCoV.

Of the seven types, only Betacoronavirus and 2019-nCoV triggered an outbreak. The Betacoronavirus causes SARS and MERS. Meanwhile, 2019-nCoV causes disease and is temporarily being called acute respiratory syndrome due to the new type of the coronavirus.

REUTERS

A view of empty booths at the Singapore Airshow in Singapore February 11, 2020.

New phase of transmission

The case of a British man who transmitted the new coronavirus to at least 11 people, even though he had never been in China, raised concerns about the start of a new phase of transmission. The 53-year-old man said on Tuesday he had recovered. However, he remained in an isolation room in a hospital in London.

Cases of the new coronavirus infection outside China generally involve those who have been in Wuhan. However, the British man contracted it while attending a conference in Singapore and then passed it on to several colleagues while on vacation in the Alps in France. He was diagnosed as infected when he

returned to England. Tedros Adhanom said the direction of the outbreak of the new coronavirus could not yet be predicted. "Later there were cases of patients who had never been to China," he said.

However, senior Chinese government medical adviser Zhong Nanshan said the outbreak was expected to end in April. The peak of the outbreak is estimated to occur in mid or late February.

Wrong

In the United States, a citizen who was evacuated from Wuhan was allowed to be discharged from a hospital in San Diego despite possibly being infected with the new coronavirus. CNN reported he was allowed to leave the hospital because initial tests showed he was not infected.

This patient arrived in the US last week at the Marine Air Base on a flight from Wuhan provided by the US State Department. He was hospitalized with three other people after showing symptoms of a possible virus infection. After initial tests showed all four were not infected with the virus, they were finally returned to federal quarantine for 14 days.

REUTERS

Traders wearing face masks are seen on the trading floor at a flower auction trading centre following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country, in Kunming, Yunnan province, China (10//2/2020).

Negative

In Cirebon, West Java, after being observed for a week in an isolation room at Gunung Jati Hospital, Chinese citizen XC, 25, was allowed to leave on Tuesday. Laboratory tests confirmed that the art worker was negative for the new coronavirus. This was announced by the president director of Gunung Jati Hospital, Ismail Jamaludi, and the Cirebon health office’s Eni Suhaeni.

XC was feared to have contracted the new type of coronavirus because his body temperature reached 37.7 degrees Celsius. He also just arrived from Shanghai, China, and came from Hubei, the province where the spread of the new coronavirus began. XC landed at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Feb. 1, 2020.

The examination of blood serum, nasal smear, and throat, as well as sputum of XC, was carried out by the virology laboratory of the Biomedical Research and Development Center of the Health Ministry. "The results were negative. The patient was picked up by the family this morning. His condition is healthy," said Ismail.

The laboratory standards in the country have been tested.

Even though there have been no reports of confirmed cases in Indonesia, the government should remain alert. Data from the Health Ministry as of Feb. 10 at 6:00 p.m. said that the Health Research and Development Agency had received 64 specimens from patients under examination. Of that number, 62 specimens showed negative results. Two other specimens are still being examined. The specimens come from 16 provinces.

The head of the WHO Representative for Indonesia, Navaratnasamy Paranietharan, said Indonesia had a standardized system of competency to handle the spread of the new coronavirus. The laboratory standards in the country have been tested. (AFP/AP/ Reuters)