We now have 11 cases in the US—2 new cases in CA. https://6abc.com/5899010/ The Wife traveled to Wuhan and came back to CA and infected spouse. They are not ill enough to be hospitalized.
100+ Princeton students to self-quarantine after their recent China trip:
https://emergency.princeton.edu/what-to-do/public-health-alerts/2019-novel-coronavirus
WA patient has been discharged and is being monitored at home per Dept of Healh SOPs:
Over 20,000 are sick with the virus. When the thread started, we were talking only a few thousands.
As expected - given the population density. Plus, diagnosis is so much faster and more reliable than back in the SARS days.
In Japan, the custom is that the sick person wears a mask so that they don’t infect others. Very civilized. Don’t know how it works in other Asian countries.
@Iglooo people said at the very beginning that the numbers were likely significant under counts. My PH listservs immediately called it as soon as a case was found outside of China that there was no way the numbers the gov were putting out were real.
I flew this weekend and observed the same thing mentioned-a fairly low number of people wearing surgical masks, and all of them appeared to be Asian.
On my flight one of the gentlemen wearing a surgical mask removed his to eat and drink his scotch and soda, and occasionally to converse with the flight attendant.
3,233 new cases in China today, 64 new deaths in China
total worldwide 20,574 to 20,626 depending on which tracker you look at.
426 deaths so far.
SARS was a slow spreading disease from what I read. SARS total for 9 months was 7-8,000. It was deadlier (although CV has overtaken the number of fatalities now) but thankfully moving slower. It sin’t just better diagnosis. I am not worried myself. Just noting that it is nothing to sniff at.
“SARS was a slow spreading disease from what I read. SARS total for 9 months was 7-8,000.”
I am positive that a lot of mild SARS cases were undetected. I am quite familiar with the state of medical diagnostics back in 2003-2004 and how far things have progressed by now. The field has seen very rapid development.
The “pneumonia vaccine” is a misnomer. It protects against a bacterium called pneumococcus, or strep pneumonia (not the same strep as in strep throat). Pneumococcus is a cause of pneumonia, but far from the only one. It can also cause bloodstream infections, which have about a 20% mortality rate. So while pneumococcal vaccine DOES decrease mortality, it will have no effect on coronavirus.
First death in Hong Kong has been reported.
Hong Kong reported its first death from the coronavirus on Tuesday morning; a 39-year-old man with underlying health issues, as the territory closed all but three of its border crossings and health workers stepped up a strike over the government’s handling of the outbreak. (Aljazeera)
Separately, Taiwan said it would begin rationing face masks, with people limited to two masks each week on presentation of their national insurance cards.
Interesting wrinkle. This South Korean woman appears to have caught the virus in Thailand, not China.
"On Tuesday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a 42-year-old South Korean woman tested positive for the virus, days after she returned from a trip to Thailand with chills and other symptoms.
It is South Korea’s 16th case. Thailand has confirmed 19 cases, mostly Chinese tourists but also in a Thai taxi driver." (PBS)
Is this coronavirus any worse than our annual influenza? I am reading that some people have very mild cold like symptoms while others develop pneumonia and die, but I am not seeing anything that tells me if 1,000 people get the virus how many die. It doesn’t sound even remotely as serious as say, Ebola. Seems to me with all the quarantining going on they have a good chance of stopping it.
@NJers the honest answer is we don’t know. We don’t know fatality or transmission rate yet - not really. We have guesses but since the data is spotty at best out of the epicenter, we won’t have a better idea until the numbers increase elsewhere.
We do have vaccines for seasonal flu that reduces severity even if they don’t prevent it. I’m still infinitely more worried about flu, measles, whooping cough, etc in the US than I am about nCoV.
It’s not to be downplayed. Yes, flu is out there and widespread however do we want a new virus out there or do we want our global health care community to try to nip it in the bud? We don’t need another seasonal virus.
Info is imperfect thus far but it does appear that 2019-nCoV has a higher transmission rate and higher mortality rate than seasonal flu, so yes, that is why the experts have concerns and why it is likely more of an issue than most flu strains.
"Chinese scientists say they have detected “striking” mutations in a new coronavirus that may have occurred during transmission between family members.
While the effects of the mutations on the virus are not known, they do have the potential to alter the way the virus behaves.
Researchers studying a cluster of infections within a family in the southern province of Guangdong said the genes of the virus went through some significant changes as it spread within the family.
Moderator’s Note:
Edited extensive quoting. Please see link for more info.
"The first 50 patients were moved Tuesday into Huoshenshan Hospital, a pre-fabricated structure on the outskirts of the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Earlier footage appeared to show the 1,000-bed facility equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment, including negative-pressure isolation wards to prevent the virus from breaking the air seal. A second hospital, Leishenshan, is due to be ready soon and will add another 1,600 beds.
Elsewhere in Wuhan, authorities are converting a gymnasium, exhibition hall and cultural center into hospitals with a total of 3,400 beds to treat patients with mild symptoms of the virus. Television footage of those facilities showed beds placed in tight rows in large rooms without dividers between them." (Charlotte Observer)
From CNN:
"Singapore has confirmed six additional cases of the Wuhan coronavirus, including four local human-to-human transmissions. The six new cases bring the total number of people infected with coronavirus in the city state to 24.
According to Singapore’s Ministry of Health, three of the new local transmission cases can be traced to contact with recent travelers from mainland China. The fourth case involved a close contact of one of the local transmission cases."
"Two additional cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Hong Kong on Tuesday, bringing the total to 17 cases and one death… officials confirmed there are now a total of four local transmission cases in Hong Kong. The two new cases announced on Tuesday have no travel history to mainland China and neither do their family members…
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed Wuhan coronavirus cases in Malaysia has increased to 10 following the confirmation of two additional cases in the country on Tuesday."