Coronavirus cases balloon in South Korea as outbreak spreads
https://www.foxnews.com/health/coronavirus-cases-south-korea-outbreak-spreads

SEOUL, South Korea – Schools were shuttered, churches told worshipers to stay away and some mass gatherings were banned as cases of a new virus swelled Friday in South Korea, the newest front in a widening global outbreak.

The country said two people have died and 204 have been infected with the virus, quadruple the number of cases it had two days earlier, as a crisis centered in China has begun strongly reverberating elsewhere.

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Coronavirus: CDC issues new travel notices for Hong Kong, Japan

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/02/20/coronavirus-hong-kong-japan-cdc-travel-advisories/4817996002/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new advisories on Wednesday for travelers going to Hong Kong and Japan in the wake of the deadly coronavirus spreading across the world.

The advisories are notably only a "level 1," a "watch," meaning travelers should exercise "usual precautions," unlike the "level 3" issued for China Jan. 27, which warns to "avoid nonessential travel." China's "level 3" advisory excludes Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. In the new Japan and Hong Kong advisories, the CDC specifically mentions it "does not recommend canceling or postponing travel."

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Researchers pinpoint facility near Wuhan seafood market as possible ground zero.

Researchers say they may have pinpointed the source of the deadly coronavirus as the death toll soars past 1600.

Scientists from South China University of Technology in Guangzhou wrote and published a paper speculating that a centre for disease control near a Wuhan seafood market may be ground zero for the virus.

Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao wrote that the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control and Prevention was the possible source because it “hosted animals in laboratories for research purposes”, including bats, and was “within 280 metres of the Huanan Seafood Market where a number of early infections were reported.

In the paper, titled The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus, researchers explained that “41 people in Wuhan were found to have the acute respiratory syndrome and 27 of them had contact with Huanan Seafood Market”.

Cheers.

sht, hope not.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/15/coronovirus-bill-gates-warns-10-million-deaths-virus-spreads/

Coronovirus: Bill Gates warns of 10 million deaths as virus spreads to Africa

Bill Gates has warned that coronavirus in Africa could overwhelm health services and trigger a pandemic which could cause 10 million deaths.

The Microsoft founder and global health pioneer was speaking at the AAAS meeting in Seattle just hours before the first case was confirmed in Cairo, Egypt.

There are now fears that the disease could spread to sub-Saharan Africa where it could spark an uncontrollable outbreak, with health services unable to monitor or control the virus.

Mr Gates said: “I wanted to talk about a special topic, which is this recent coronavirus epidemic.

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CDC director: Novel coronavirus 'is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year'
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/13/health/coronavirus-cdc-robert-redfield-gupta-intv/index.html

(CNN)As an outbreak of a novel coronavirus has swept through Hubei province, China, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been preparing for its worst case scenario -- a widespread outbreak of illnesses in the United States.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cdc-confirms-15th-case-of-coronavirus-in-the-united-states/ar-BBZXRvM?li=BBnb7Kz
CDC confirms 15th case of coronavirus in the United States

(Reuters) - U.S. officials reported the 15th case of coronavirus in the United States on Thursday, saying the patient was among those who had been evacuated from Wuhan, China, and placed under federal quarantine at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

It was the third evacuee and first at Lackland to test positive, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a statement while noting that there will likely be additional cases among people recently returned from China.

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Thanks for everyone's posts.

Coronavirus disease named Covid-19
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51466362

The World Health Organization says the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19.

"We now have a name for the disease and it's Covid-19," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.

It comes after the death toll from the virus passed 1,000. Tens of thousands of people have been infected.

Dr Ghebreyesus called on the world to fight the new virus as aggressively as possible.

The word coronavirus refers to the group of viruses it belongs to, rather than the latest strain.

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On Wednesday, 242 new deaths were reported as a result of the corona virus in the Chinese province of Hubei. This is the highest number of reported deaths in a day since the virus broke out. Previously, the highest number was 103.
One explanation for the dramatic increase is that health care has begun to use a new clinical diagnosis method, according to Reuters.
A total of 1,310 people have now died as a result of the virus in Hubei, which is the province where the virus first broke out.
In addition to the number of deaths, the number of confirmed cases of the virus continues to increase.
Early Thursday morning, Chinese health authorities announced that they had confirmed 14,480 new cases in the province.
In total, about 60,000 cases have now been confirmed in China, of which 48,000 are in Hubei, reports Reuters.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51482994

Mysterious bat cave in Chinese wilderness could hold key to coronavirus.

In 2004, deep in the wilderness of China’s Yunnan province, a group of scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology discovered a cave full of wild bats carrying hundreds of SARS-related viruses.

Their work, published in a draft paper in 2005, unearthed the link between SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and bats for the first time.

Now the virologist who led that study, Shi Zhengli, has revealed one of the strains found in that cave — the exact location of which is a closely guarded secret — is almost identical to the 2019-nCoV coronavirus which has so far killed at least 1,115 people and infected more than 45,000 worldwide.

Cheers.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/11/coronavirus-likely-jumped-from-bats-to-another-host-before-infecting-humans-who.html
Coronavirus likely jumped from bats to an ‘intermediate host’ before infecting humans, WHO says

The new coronavirus that emerged from a seafood market in Wuhan, China, likely originated in bats and then jumped to an “intermediate host” before infecting humans, World Health Organization officials said Tuesday.

Scientists are running tests on various animals, but have so far not found the host responsible for the outbreak, Dr. Sylvie Briand, head of WHO’s Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, told reporters at a news conference at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.

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Ugly looking creature Moomin.

Indeed. That some even like to eat them are... well, not to my liking...

Ugly looking creature Moomin.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/08/asia/coronavirus-deaths-china-intl-hnk/index.html
China has deadliest day for coronavirus as US national becomes first foreigner to die
Beijing (CNN)A US national in China is believed to be the first foreigner to die from the Wuhan coronavirus, authorities confirmed Saturday, while a Japanese man suspected of having the virus in Wuhan has died of pneumonia.
The US Embassy in Beijing confirmed a 60-year-old American national had died on Thursday at the Jinyintian Hospital in Wuhan, while the Chinese government offered condolences for the death of "a Chinese-American."

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Chinese scientists now believe they have found an explanation for how the new corona virus has spread from bats to humans. The hypothesis is now that the virus used the pangolin as a kind of intermediate host, reports Reuters.
It comes after researchers analyzed the virus's genetic mass and discovered that it was 99% identical to the genetic mass in the form of the virus that attacks the pangolins , reports the Chinese news agency Xinhua news agency.
"This latest discovery will be of great importance when it comes to preventing and controlling the origin (of the virus, ed. Note)," writes the Chinese university, which led the research in a statement.

Pangolins are currently protected, but despite this, the animals are still hunted extensively in Asia, as their meat is considered a delicacy and their armor-like scales are believed to have medicinal properties.

ouch :(

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-came-from-bats-or-possibly-pangolins-amid-acceleration-of-new-zoonotic-infections/2020/02/07/11eb7f3a-4379-11ea-b503-2b077c436617_story.html

Coronavirus came from bats or possibly pangolins amid ‘acceleration’ of new zoonotic infections
The outbreak of a new kind of coronavirus in central China is loaded with mysteries, and among the biggest is how the virus made the jump from an animal host into humans. This global health crisis is a reminder of the danger of zoonosis — the ability of pathogens, including bacteria and viruses, to enter the human population from an animal host.

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https://apnews.com/11a8553519019fdbb3d67976ebc28674

‘A floating prison’: Cruise of Asia ends in virus quarantine

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — David Abel’s 50th wedding anniversary luxury cruise began with him eating his fill and enjoying the sights of East Asia.

It’s ending with him quarantined in his cabin aboard the Diamond Princess for two extra weeks, eating a “lettuce sandwich with some chicken inside” and watching 20 infected people escorted off the ship, heading for hospitals for treatment of a new virus.

Abel is among hundreds of passengers on two cruise ships in Japan and Hong Kong who are caught in the drama and fear about the little-understood, but fast-spreading new type of coronavirus. Tests are still pending on some passengers and crew who have symptoms or had contact with infected people.

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The baby's mother also tested positive for the virus before she gave birth, according to Union Hospital, affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Virus passes placental barrier.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-baby-tests-positive-symptoms-30-hours-after-birth-pregnant-mother-transmitted-wuhan-china/

Baby tests positive for coronavirus just 30 hours after birth
The coronavirus has infected at least 24,000 people worldwide, and officials in China now say the youngest person with the illness is a newborn baby who was infected just 30 hours after being born.

The state-run news site XinhuaNet says the infant was born on February 2 at a hospital in Wuhan, China — the city where the coronavirus outbreak originated. The baby's mother also tested positive for the virus before she gave birth, according to Union Hospital, affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

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Wuhan 2019nCoV may be much worse than "officially" reported

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As many experts question the veracity of China's statistics for the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Tencent over the weekend seems to have inadvertently released what is potentially the actual number of infections and deaths, which were astronomically higher than official figures.

On late Saturday evening (Feb. 1), Tencent, on its webpage titled "Epidemic Situation Tracker", showed confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (2019nCoV) in China as standing at 154,023, 10 times the official figure at the time. It listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure.

The number of cured cases was only 269, well below the official number that day of 300. Most ominously, the death toll listed was 24,589, vastly higher than the 300 officially listed that day.

Moments later, Tencent updated the numbers to reflect the government's "official" numbers that day. Netizens noticed that Tencent has on at least three occasions posted extremely high numbers, only to quickly lower them to government-approved statistics.

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1st patient diagnosed with coronavirus in U.S. released from hospital

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/1st-patient-diagnosed-coronavirus-u-s-released-hospital-n1129201

The first patient to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the United States is out of the hospital.

The man, who'd been hospitalized at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington, will remain in isolation while he continues to recover at home, according to the Snohomish Health District.

The unidentified man asked for privacy in a statement, adding, "I appreciate all of the concern expressed by members of the public, and I look forward to returning to my normal life."

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https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/02/asia/wuhan-coronavirus-philippines-intl-hnk/index.html
First person outside of mainland China dies of Wuhan coronavirus

Hong Kong (CNN)A man in the Philippines has died from the Wuhan coronavirus -- the first time a death has been reported outside mainland China since the outbreak began in December.

:-(

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