China and some countries around the world are fighting against the spread of a new coronavirus that has killed 81 people and infected over 2,700 people.
More than 56 million people in nearly 20 Chinese cities— including Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei Province where the virus originated — were under a tight lockdown, imposed as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel during Lunar New Year festivities in the midst of fears of transmission rate.
What is a coronavirus?According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause respiratory diseases like the common cold. At one point in their lives, most people get infected with coronaviruses but symptoms are typically mild to moderate. The viruses can in some cases cause diseases of the lower respiratory tract, such as pneumonia and bronchitis.
These viruses are widespread worldwide among animals but only a few are known to affect humans. Coronaviruses will rarely develop and spread from animals to humans. This is what occurred with the coronaviruses known as the Middle East coronavirus respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) and the severe coronavirus acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-Cov), both of which are known to cause more severe symptoms.
What are the symptoms?Signs of infection include
fever, cough, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing according to the WHO. It can lead to pneumonia, serious acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death in more severe cases. Coronavirus Incubation Period remains unknown. Several sources say it could be 10-14 days from now.
What is being done to stop its spread?There is no vaccine for the new virus. Chinese authorities have effectively sealed off Wuhan, state media said.
The move was meant to "resolutely contain the momentum of the epidemic spreading" and protect lives, the central city's special command centre against the virus said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
More than a dozen other Chinese cities also adopted transport restrictions, affecting 56 million people. Airports around the world have introduced screening measures and some countries are working to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan.
Where did the virus originate?Chinese health authorities are still trying to determine the origin of the virus, which they say came from a seafood market in Wuhan where wildlife was also traded illegally.
The WHO also says an animal source appears most likely to be the primary source of the outbreak.
Snakes - including the Chinese krait and the cobra - may be the source of the newly discovered virus, according to Chinese scientists.
Is this a global emergency?The outbreak does not yet constitute a global emergency, the WHO has said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the decision to hold off on issuing the declaration used for the gravest epidemics should not be taken as a sign that the body does not think the situation is serious.
"This is an emergency in China, but it has not yet become a global health emergency," he told reporters.
There have been five global health emergencies since 2005, when the declaration was formalised - swine flu in 2009; polio in 2014; Ebola in 2014; Zika in 2016 and Ebola again in 2019.
SOURCE:
AL JAZEERA
