From: slider@atashram.com

Hong Kong (CNN)Officials in China are racing to contain the spread of a
new virus that has left at least six people dead and sickened more than
300, after it was confirmed the infection can spread between humans.

Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus was first detected, announced a series of new measures Tuesday, including the cancellation of upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations, expected to attract hundreds of
thousands of people.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/21/asia/china-china-coronavirus-sars-intl-hnk/index.html

Tour agencies have been banned from taking groups out of Wuhan and the
number of thermal monitors and screening areas in public spaces will be increased. Traffic police will also conduct spot checks on private
vehicles coming in and out of the city to look for live poultry or wild animals, after the virus was linked to a seafood and live animal market, according to a report by state media outlet the People's Daily, citing
Wuhan's Municipal Health Commission.

The new measures come after Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered "resolute efforts to curb the spread" of the virus Monday.

There are now fears, however, that efforts to contain it are coming too
late, hampered by a slow-moving Chinese bureaucracy which failed to put sufficient measures in place in time.
In the coming days, hundreds of millions of Chinese are expected to begin traveling across the country and overseas as the annual Lunar New Year
break gets fully underway, compounding concerns of a further spike in
cases.

Though infections were first detected in Wuhan in mid-December, infrared temperature screening areas were not installed in the city's airports and stations until January 14, according to state media.
On Tuesday, China's National Health Commission announced that it had
received 291 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus, with 77 new cases reported on January 20.

The municipal health commissions of Zhejiang, Tianjin, Beijing and
Shanghai also reported additional cases on Tuesday, pushing the number of infections up to 307.

Patients have been identified as having the virus in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located (270 cases), Beijing (10 cases); Guangdong province (14 cases); Shanghai (six cases); Zhejiang (five cases); and Tianjin (two
cases). Suspected cases have also been reported in Yunnan, Sichuan,
Guangxi and Shandong provinces.

The death toll rose to six Tuesday evening, after the Wuhan Municipal
Health Commission confirmed that a 66-year-old male and a 48-year-old
female died on January 20.
It added that 60 new cases were confirmed by the end of Monday in Wuhan
city, where a 15-year-old is the youngest to be infected.

Confirmed case in Taiwan

Beyond China, the outbreak has so far spread as far as Thailand, Japan and South Korea. Taiwan discovered the island's first case at Taoyuan
International Airport, Taiwan's Center for Disease Control said Tuesday.

It said a woman traveling from Wuhan complained to health workers that she
felt ill after stepping off her flight. She was put in isolation where
further tests confirmed she had contracted the virus, the agency added.

The patient in South Korea told officials there she had developed a fever
and muscle pains on Saturday and was prescribed cold medicine by a doctor
in Wuhan, before being sent on her way.

Despite initial reports that the virus was unlikely to spread between
humans, Chinese health authorities have now said there is "definitely human-to-human transmission." One patient is believed to have infected as
many as 14 medical staff in one hospital, suggesting the disease can be
spread far more easily than previously thought.

The specter of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which infected
more than 8,000 people and killed 774 in a pandemic that ripped through
Asia in 2002 and 2003, has loomed large over discussion of the current
virus.

During the SARS outbreak, Chinese authorities initially downplayed the
dangers and censored coverage, preventing people from realizing the
severity of the virus and taking action in time to stop its spread.

Zhong Nanshan, an expert with China's National Health Commission who is investigating the Wuhan virus, told state media Monday that while it is
not as serious as SARS, the number of people with the disease was
"climbing" and suggested that the "death rate at the moment is not so representative."

A study by researchers in the UK estimated that the number of infections
in Wuhan is still grossly underestimated, with the real number closer to
1,700, based on the spread of the virus to other cities and countries in a relatively short period of time.

Worldwide effort

Even before cases were detected in other countries, the efforts to contain
the Wuhan coronavirus were international. Wuhan alone has connections to
dozens of overseas destinations, and Beijing and Shanghai have hundreds
more.

Airports across Asia have stepped up temperature screening of incoming passengers, as have several hubs in the US with connections to Wuhan,
including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
With all indications that the virus has a relatively slow incubation time, however, these efforts may be insufficient to stop its spread.

"You cannot absolutely prevent entry into the country of a disease like
this. The incubation period is probably a week," Australia's chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, said Tuesday. "It's about identifying those with
a high risk and making sure people with a high risk know about it and know
how to get medical attention."

He said that while there was no cause for immediate alarm, the true number
of cases was likely far higher than currently reported and urged people to
be vigilant about potential symptoms.
Australian authorities on Tuesday quarantined a man in Brisbane who had returned from Wuhan with possible symptoms of the coronavirus. He will
remain in isolation until his symptoms have resolved, Queensland Health authorities said.

In the US, the National Institutes of Health is working on a vaccine for
the new virus, though it will take at least a few months until the first
phase of clinical trials get underway and more than a year until a vaccine might be available.

Scientists in Texas, New York and China are also at work on a vaccine, according to Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist at Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston.

"The lesson we've learned is coronavirus infections are serious and one of
the newest and biggest global health threats," Hotez told CNN.

On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it would convene
an emergency meeting on Wednesday to determine whether the outbreak
constitutes a public health emergency of "international concern" and what recommendations should be made to help manage its spread.

### - they always play things down initially don't they heh... but Sars
was deadly because it turned out to be so very highly infectious; e.g.,
someone infected pressed an elevator button and everyone who
touched/pressed it caught it for days afterwards! and if this one turns
out to be similarly infectious (it's the same virus but has mutated some
so could easily vary either way) then it could certainly become a problem (canada was sealed-off from the world for a little while during the last outbreak for example...)

more worrying/concerning, perhaps, is the fact that sars reputedly escaped
from some kind facility originally, it's military grade being ultimately responsible for its being so infectious...

so has this then maybe happened again?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)