According to China, forty-one people died due to the coronavirus infection that infected over 1,300 people worldwide, whereas health authorities all over the world scramble to stop a global pandemic. In a statement on Saturday, the National Health Commission said that the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China now raises to 1,287. On Friday, the death toll rose from twenty-six.

All the recent deaths occurred in Wuhan city of China, the epicenter of the outbreak in virtual isolation as China scrambles to contain the spread of the virus. The major cases and all of the confirmed demises are from China until today. However, the coronavirus also detected in the United States, Japan, France, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan. Person-to-person transmission of virus observed and health authorities assume that the virus originated in a seafood market in Wuhan that traded criminally in wildlife.

This week the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the recent coronavirus as an emergency in China but stopped to declare it as an international concern. The fetal virus continues to spread internationally, thought the French authorities reported the first confirmed cases of Europe on Friday evening. Wuhan, the capital of central Hubei province, a city of eleven million people, is in virtual lockdown. Approximately, all flights at the airport of Wuhan cancelled and checkpoints block all the main roads leading out of the city.

Since then, authorities imposed the same type of lockdown on over ten cities nearby Wuhan as part of the ongoing restraint effort. As Wuhan city slides into isolation, drugstores started to run out of supplies and hospitals flooded with nervous patients. State media said that the city would build one thousand-bed hospital by Monday.

Exact infected number by Hubei health authority

According to the health authority of Hubei, around 658 patients affected by the coronavirus in medical care, from the fifty-seven were critically ill. Director of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, Mary Gallagher said that it must be annoying that on the weekend the government of China must reassure residents that the virus didn’t spread in humans and was under control and then just after four days, to pledge a unique lockdown of Wuhan as well as other cities.

The latest coronavirus created an alarming situation because there are still several unknowns surrounding it, for example, how dangerous it is and how simply it spreads between people. It may cause pneumonia, that may become deadly in some of the cases. The World Health Organization stated a few symptoms that include fever, coughing and difficulty breathing. Many of the fatalities belong to elderly patients, most of them with pre-existing conditions.

Airports around the globe began taking screening of travellers from China, though some of the health officials, as well as experts, asked the effectiveness of the screening and lockdown. Health officials showed their worry that the transmission rate might accelerate as millions of Chinese travels at home and internationally during long-week holidays for the Lunar New Year, that started on Saturday.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Preventions said that id had sixty-three patients under investigation, with two confirmed cases, both in those people who travelled to Wuhan city. Following a congressional briefing by the officials of health, a former physician, Republican United States Senator John Barrasso said people in the U.S. with the virus might be infected up to fourteen years ago in China.

Sense of Urgency

Most cases reported in Wuhan, where the virus believed to originated in a seafood market that traded illegally in wildlife. The Hubei reported that China climbs to contain the outbreak, it on hold transportation in ten cities in the central province of Hubei, where Wuhan situated. State television reported that the country would take more and targeted measures, citing a State Council meeting on Friday. However, it didn’t give additional details.

State broadcaster CCTV said that local authorities should take further responsibility and must have a sense of urgency. To welcome the Year of the Rat began on Friday, week-long celebrations ongoing, raising concerns that the rate of infection could accelerate as millions of people travel to home as well as abroad to see family. State media reported that due to the restrictions, some areas of the Great Wall near Beijing closed since Saturday.

Snakes might be the cause of Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan

Lama Temple of Beijing, where Chinese traditionally make offerings for the Lunar New Year, closed along with some other temples as well as the Forbidden City, the most famous tourist attraction of the capital. Shanghai Disneyland closed on last Saturday. The theme park has a one lac daily capacity of tourists and sold out during the new year holiday of last year.

Moreover, due to the outbreak, producers and directors postponed their film premieres, and McDonald suspended its business in five cities of Hubei province. Lily Jin, a resident of Wuhan, told Reuters on a phone call that after every ten minutes there’s an update about the virus, it’s frightening, especially for people like them in a severe area.

Quest of Vaccine

On Thursday, the World Health Organization says that it was too early to designate the outbreak an international concern public health emergency, that might require countries to intensify their response. That decision could well check in upcoming days as the situation evolves, the United States National Institutes of Health’s top infectious disease official, Anthony Fauci. A public health expert at Georgetown University Law School in Washington, Lawrence Gosin said that the spontaneous mass quarantine in Wuhan city as well as its neighbouring cities counterproductive. A Wuhan’s lockdown will drive the widespread underground, provoking panic and terror.

On the other side, some experts believe that the coronavirus is not as much dangerous as the one that causes the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002 and 2003. SARS also originated in China and killed around eight hundred people. Similarly, another virus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), it killed over seven hundred people since 2012. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations said that three international research teams using three separate approaches, started work on vaccines.

Markets roiled week on worries that the coronavirus outbreak will limit travel as well as hurt the economic demand. Furthermore, shares in luxury goods firms have mainly hard hit on uncertainties of a drop in demand from China.