Medical Brief 287 - 30 January 2020
"The number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus has overtaken the 2003 SARS outbreak inside of mainland China with more than 6,000 confirmed cases of the virus in mainland China, including 132 deaths, writes MedicalBrief. The CEO of Novartis has warned in a CNBC report that it will take at least a year to find a new vaccine.
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has overtaken the 2003 SARS outbreak inside of mainland China. CNN reports that, according to the Chinese National Health Commission (NHC), as of Wednesday, there were 5,974 confirmed cases of the virus in mainland China, including 132 deaths.
The number of cases grew by almost 1,500 from Tuesday, a more than 30% increase. The figures do not include Hong Kong and Macau, both of which have reported a small number of cases. There have been more than 80 cases of the virus reported outside mainland China, bringing the worldwide total to over 6,000.
During the 2003 SARS outbreak there were 5,327 confirmed cases of the disease in mainland China, with 349 deaths. Experts have previously estimated the Wuhan virus figures could still be vastly under-reported, making the novel coronavirus far more contagious, but also less deadly, than SARS.
Wuhan’s Communist Party chief Ma Guoqiang said that testing had been streamlined in recent days, leading to a spike in diagnoses. “This does not mean the speed of the disease spreading has increased drastically,” he added.
Authorities in China also reported a suspected case of the Wuhan virus in Tibet, previously the only region to have avoided the virus. If confirmed, the spread to Tibet despite the implementation of strict checks on travellers and closing of tourist sites will renew concerns about how easily the virus is transmitted, particularly when people are asymptomatic."
Read more:
https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/2019-07-11-south-africans-rising-insurance-risk/
