Since December, Chinese health authorities have been working to control a new pneumonia-causing virus that is known to have infected dozens of people and caused two deaths.
The disease is thought to be caused by a previously unknown type of coronavirus that may have first spread to humans from animals at a now-shuttered seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where most of the cases have been diagnosed. Further cases have been confirmed in Thailand and Japan, while suspected cases have also occurred in a number of other countries and territories.
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause a variety of ailments, among them the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). However, health officials do not believe the new virus is as dangerous as SARS or MERS, and it remains unclear whether it can spread between people.
Caixin Global will continue covering this story as it develops. The following are major developments in the story, including the latest updates.
Thursday, Jan. 16
• Wuhan’s municipal health commission confirmed that a second person had died from pneumonia linked to the virus. The 69-year-old man, surnamed Xiong, died in the early hours of Wednesday morning. He had been treated for severe symptoms since Jan. 4, including extensive damage to multiple organs, heart muscle inflammation, abnormal kidney function, and suspected tuberculosis.
• Japan said Thursday it had confirmed the first case of the virus in the country. The patient, a man in his 30s from Kanagawa prefecture in the greater Tokyo region, tested positive after returning from Wuhan, the Japanese health ministry said (link in Japanese). The WHO said in a statement that global travel patterns increase the likelihood of further cases in other countries.
• Singapore’s Ministry of Health said a 69-year-old man with pneumonia had been isolated for further assessment as a “precautionary measure,” bringing the country’s total number of suspected Wuhan coronavirus cases to three. The man, a Singaporean citizen, had a history of travel to Wuhan but had not visited the seafood market at the center of the investigation. He is currently in a stable condition, the ministry said.
• Vietnam’s health ministry quarantined two Chinese people from Wuhan at Danang International Airport as part of efforts to prevent the virus spreading to the Southeast Asian nation, Bloomberg reported.
Wednesday, Jan. 15
• The U.S. State Department warned Americans in China about the outbreak after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a risk assessment of the virus.
• Wuhan’s municipal health commission confirmed that some samples taken from the seafood market at the center of the investigation had tested positive for the virus.
• The World Health Organization said that a Chinese woman diagnosed with the virus in Thailand regularly visited fresh food markets in Wuhan but had not been to the seafood market in question.
Friday, Jan. 17
• Thailand has confirmed a second case of the virus, a 74-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, Reuters reported, citing the permanent secretary of the country’s health ministry. The country is not experiencing an outbreak of the virus, the permanent secretary stressed.
• India issued travel advice to citizens visiting China, reminding people to observe good personal hygiene and monitor their health closely.
Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com) and editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
