Beware Of Human-to-Human Transmission Of The New Corona Virus

Illustration (Arek Socha/Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The new corona virus, which has killed at least three people and infected more than 200 people in China, can be transmitted between people. This was conveyed directly by a health expert appointed by the Chinese government. The news sparked renewed concern as millions of Chinese people prepare to travel for the New Year's holidays.

Zhong Nanshan, head of a team set up by China's National Health Service to investigate the new coronavirus, confirmed that at least two cases showed human-to-human transmission. Medical staff who had handled corona virus sufferers have also been infected with the virus.

Authorities previously said that a new type of coronavirus that Chinese health workers were tracing to a seafood market in Wuhan City, was transmitted from animals to humans. But in recent days, two people have been infected with the coronavirus despite living hundreds of miles from the city of Wuhan. The two people in Guangdong province are a family who recently returned from Wuhan.

"The current cases show there must be human-to-human transmission," Zhong Nanshan told CCTV, the Chinese state-run news channel.

Zhong Nanshan is no stranger to the discovery of a new virus. In 2003, Zhong discovered the SARS virus, which at that time had the first outbreak in China. SARS infected more than 8,000 people and killed 774 in the pandemic that hit Asia in 2002 and 2003. Earlier on Monday January 20, Chinese authorities reported that the number of cases had tripled to 218. The outbreak has spread to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzen, an area hundreds of miles away from Wuhan.

Quoted from CNN, Tuesday, January 21, 2020, Thailand has also reported two cases, while Japan and South Korea reported one case each, bringing the total cases globally to 222.

Three cases outside of China claimed to have previously traveled from Wuhan City. On Monday 20 January 2020, South Korea also confirmed its first case of the virus. According to the South Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a 35-year-old Chinese woman was detected by a temperature checker on Sunday January 19 while arriving at Incheon International Airport, Seoul, from Wuhan City. The woman was immediately quarantined and is now in stable condition.

The woman from China is planning to go on vacation in South Korea and Japan with five other people. He said he had suffered from fever and muscle aches on Saturday January 18 and was given flu medicine by doctors in Wuhan. Nearly 7 million Chinese people are estimated to have traveled abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday season.

"I believe Chinese tourists will carry the virus to many other countries in Asia in the coming days, due to their overseas trips during the Lunar New Year holidays," said Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a respiratory specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States (US) announced that three airports in the US namely New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles began screening passengers arriving from Wuhan for signs of the new virus, following similar steps taken by the government in Asia.

In Wuhan, infrared thermometers have been installed at airports, train stations, terminals and docks to measure the temperature of passengers leaving Wuhan since January 14. The measures were implemented only five weeks earlier in the outbreak, but many passengers still left the city without being screened.