WHO Declares nCoV Public Health Emergency amid Virus Spread
China Totals Pass 8,000
Overnight, China reported 1,737 more cases, along with 38 more deaths, raising its outbreak total to 7,711 cases, 170 of them fatal, according to the latest update from the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC). The number of severe illnesses climbed to 1,370.
CIDRAP reports that amedical tracking site that updates case totals as they are released by cities in provinces reflected a total of 8,163 cases and 171 deaths this afternoon. Nearly 5,000 are from Hubei province, which is home to Wuhan, the outbreak’s epicenter.
Tibet is the latest part of China to report its first case, according to a statement Wednesday from Tibet Autonomous Region. It did not give details about the patient or his or her exposure. So far, 31 of China’s 33 provinces or administrative regions have reported cases.
India, Philippines Report First Cases
In reporting the country’s first 2019-nCoV case today, India’s health ministry said the patient is a student who attended Wuhan University who tested positive after returning home to Kerala state, Kyodo News reported today. The woman is being treated in isolation in a hospital, where she is listed in stable condition.
The Philippines first case is a 38-year-old woman from China, the WHO Western Pacific regional office (WHO WPRO) said on Twitter Thursday. An attached press release from the country’s health ministry said the woman arrived from Wuhan via Hong Kong on Jan 21. She sought medical care on Jan 25 after experiencing a mild cough.
The WHO said the testing was conducted at the WHO’s reference lab in Australia.
More Cases Elsewhere
At least five more countries reported more exported cases, but one of the two newly announced infections from South Korea involved local spread and the latest case from the United States involved local spread.
South Korea’s latest patients include a 32-year-old Korean man who got sick after returning from Wuhan and a 56-year-old man who is a contact of the country’s third imported 2019-nCoV case-patient, signaling the country’s’ first secondary infection, according to health ministry sources quoted in a report from a medical publication translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
The United States today announced a sixth case, in the husband and close contact of woman identified as an earlier imported case (see related CIDRAP News story, “First human-to-human nCoV spread reported in US.”)
Other countries reporting more cases include:
· Vietnam confirmed three more cases involving travelers from Wuhan, according to the Star, an English-language newspaper based in Malaysia, which cited the country’s health ministry.
· Japan announced three cases among 206 citizens evacuated from Wuhan. One patient is a man in his 50s who had symptoms, and the others—a man in his 40s and a woman in her 50s—are asymptomatic.
· Australia reported one more case in Queensland, involving a 42-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan who is part of the same tour group from which the state’s first case was reported, according to a statement from the Queensland government.
· Hong Kong has two new patients, one a 37-year-old daughter of a Wuhan couple announced yesterday as confirmed cases, and the other a 75-year-old man who recently spent time in Guangdong province, according to a statement from Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP).
