Wuhan’s Coronavirus, a virus that first appeared in China’s city, Wuhan, has become the hottest subject in the world in few weeks from its first outburst, however, China is no longer the only infected country, it seems that the disease has found new places to inhabit, in Europe, America, Oceania and even to Africa. Researchers fear it may be a future global issue and cannot predict how many deaths it may cause.
The virus is expected to become a pandemic as Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease declared “It’s very, very transmissible, and it almost certainly is going to be a pandemic”. But will it be deadly? and to what extent?. That’s what science could not predict.
Within the last three weeks, the number of lab-confirmed cases has risen from about 50 in China to more than 17,000 in at least 23 countries; there have been more than 360 deaths.
But different epidemiological models estimate that the true number of cases is 100,000 or more. While this expansion is not as fast as flu or measles, it is a huge leap beyond what virologists saw when SARS and Corona appeared.
An agency of the European Union called the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control provided shocking statistics on yesterday stating the latest evolvement in Coronavirus: from the 31st of December 2019 to the 3rd of February 2020, there has been 17 383 laboratory-confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection reported and 362 deaths.
Cases have been reported on the following continents:
Asia: China (17 220), Japan (20), Thailand (19), Singapore (18), Republic of Korea (15), Taiwan (11), Malaysia (8), Vietnam (8), United Arab Emirates (5), India (2), the Philippines (2), Cambodia (1), Nepal (1), and Sri Lanka (1).
Europe: Germany (10), France (6), Italy (2), United Kingdom (2), Russia (2), Finland (1), Spain (1) and Sweden (1).
America: the United States (11) and Canada (4).
Oceania: Australia (12).
Out of the 362 deaths reported, 361 have been reported from China: Hubei (350), Henan (2), Heilongjiang (2), Beijing (1), Hainan (1), Hebei (1), Shanghai (1), Sichuan (1), Chongqing (2).One death was reported from the Philippines
Recently, the virus crossed to Africa.«South China Morning Post«–Hong Kong’s English-language newspaper- issued a big headline “Africa on alert after Kenya, Ethiopia report suspected coronavirus cases” announcing the submergence of the virus in African countries, South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia have all issued alerts and increased screening to prevent the spread of the disease; apparently, because China is one of the biggest investors in the areas.
What is more alarming is that African countries aren’t well equipped and trained to contain nor recognize infected people in comparison to the Us, Canada, and other developed countries. The African authorities did indeed ask to help train their specialists but that would take time.
Nkengasong, the veteran of more than 20 years at the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and current director of the newly created Africa CDC He said that the center is working closely with W.H.O, partners, and donors to coordinate efforts. Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the center received on Monday
US$5 million in emergency funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help contain the spread of the Coruna virus among African Union member states.