HOW CORONA VIRUS (Covid-19) SPREAD DAY BY DAY
Hundreds dead
thousands infected across multiple continents millions quarantined with whole
cities in lock down but how did the corona virus spread so quickly we're going
to trace the virus day by day over the first month of the outbreak following
its path from patient zero and China to across the world and what might happen
next as people everywhere celebrate the start of a new decade the World Health
Organization is told that a handful of people in the city of Wuhan and China
had pneumonia with no other clear causes or origin but there's one common theme
that connects the patient's wound and seafood wholesale market many of these
first cases are linked to workers at the market selling live fish birds and
other animals as a precaution the market is shut on January the 1st nearly a
week later on January the 7th Chinese authorities say they've identified the
cause of the pneumonia a new virus in the wider corona virus group which
includes the common cold and stars now this sparks serious concerns 17 years
ago.
HOW CORONA BECOME EPIDEMIC
The SARS epidemic began in China and went on to kill 800 people the new virus is temporarily named 2019 and CoV what becomes popularly known as the corona virus seen here all obey sure we do a few days later on January the 9th the first death is confirmed a 61 year old man he was a regular visitor to the market in Wuhan by now 41 people are known to be infected with the virus at this stage Wu Hans health Commission says there's no evidence the virus could spread between humans yet by week 2 the new novel corona virus isn't just affecting China on January 13th Thailand reports its first case now to understand how and why the infection spread it's key to look at the timing of it reports of the first death in China came just before Chinese New Year the country's biggest holiday and a time when millions are traveling all across the country and abroad as planes left Wuhan Apple so too did the virus on the 15th of January Japan reports its first case then on the 20th of January South Korea does too on the same day that South Korea reports its first case it's confirmed the corona virus can pass from person to person and official figures become clearer as the World Health Organization starts to publish daily reports this is when the numbers erupt with 282 cases reported from four countries.
CHINA BECOME HOTSPOT OF CORNONA VIRUS
The next
day 314 cases are confirmed including 16 health care workers it then jumps to
581 with the majority still in China On January the 23rd with the numbers
rising the city of Wuhan is put under quarantine this is usually a very busy
street another beautiful day in quarantine ruin anyone in public is told to
wear a face mask and the Chinese government sends 300,000 extra mouths to help
then at 2:00 a.m. it's announced that all public transport is to be shut down
and anyone wanting to leave the city has 8 hours before all exits are closed
from 10:00 a.m.
WHERE START LOCKDOWN FRIST
Wuhan a city with a population bigger than London is in
lockdown a brand new 1000 bed hospital begins to be built to treat the virus
with the aim of completing the whole thing it's just a matter of days China has
history here in the midst of the SARS epidemic in 2003 as Beijing battled
severe acute respiratory syndrome a new facility for patients was constructed
in just one week almost a month after first learning about the virus on the
13th of January the w-h-o now declares a public health emergency with the main
reason being its global spread away CORONA VIRUS from China there are now 82 cases in 18
countries but no deaths outside of China yet and in Germany Japan Vietnam
France and the United States people who have been to China and now infect in
those who haven't come the last day in January the virus spreads to England
were two members of the same family test positive .in
China meanwhile there are now two thousand new cases in just the last 24 hours
and the virus has now reached every state in the country bringing the worldwide
total to nine thousand eight cases across 21 countries the biggest quarantine
in history right now taking place in China I think you're gonna see that more
amplified now as a result of this declaration the United States declares a
public health emergency and says that it will begin temporarily suspending
entry for foreign nationals who have traveled to China in the last 14 days
that's against the advice of the w-h-o yet there have still been no deaths
outside China come the start of the month three more countries report having
the virus bringing the total to 24 following on from the United States lead
Australia says it will also refuse entry to all non-citizens arriving from
China Australian nationals coming from China will be quarantined for two weeks
something the UK South Korea Singapore and New Zealand are beginning to also do
as they evacuate citizens from China and monitor them for symptoms ever of
quarantine on Sunday the second of February .
FRIST DEATH REPORTED OUTSIDE CHINE
The first
death is reported outside of mainland China a 44 year old Chinese man from
Wuhan dies of the virus in the Philippines and then by February the 4th a
second death outside the Chinese mainland was confirmed in Hong Kong so looking
back from the start of the year to February the 11th the novel corona virus has
infected more than 43,000 people globally the majority of those in China and
the Chinese authorities now say it's caused the death of more than thousand
people in the country although the number of new infections day by day has
begun to decline that means more people have died from the novel corona virus
than they did during the SARS outbreak in China but is it as deadly and what
does the first month of this outbreak tell us about the nature of the
corona virus currently experts believe the virus has killed around 3 percent of
those it has infected that's a lower death rate than SARS which had a mortality
rate of just under 10 percent and other diseases like Ebola which kills around
50% of those infects however corona virus has infected more than five times as
many people as SARS ever did so crucially what might happen next.
a lot depends on how
well the virus is contained but we can use right now or would record
non-pharmaceutical mentions preventing mass gatherings potentially closing
schools potentially even introducing travel restrictions it's going to be a
real challenge to contain it the Chinese have been applauded by the whu-oh for
their response to the virus with the director-general saying they have set a
new standard for their reaction to the outbreak the speed with which China
detected the outbreak.
VIRUS SEQUENCED THE GENOME AND SHARED WITH WHO
Isolated the virus sequenced the genome and shared it with
whu-oh and the world are very impressive now the Chinese have admitted to their
own shortcomings in their initial dealings with the virus in the first few days
and weeks officials have been accused of downplaying the severity of the virus
a doctor in Wuhan tried to warn colleagues late in December and he was accused
by authorities for spreading false information although they later apologized
then in early February the doctor himself was killed by the very virus he tried
to warn against sparking outrage at the Chinese government many experts now
believe that by not alerting the public and healthcare professionals much
earlier a crucial opportunity was lost to stop the disease from becoming an
epidemic.
stand if we fail to prepare we're preparing to fail as China
and other countries continue to try to contain the virus what's the best advice
for you regarding the outbreak the Department of Health in the UK has called
the corona virus what we do know is that the major risk comes from the virus
spreading to countries who do not have as advanced health care systems these
countries will be less able to cope with an outbreak and less effective at
quarantine and controlling.
OUTBREAK OF CORONA VIRUS
The spread our
greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with
weaker health systems and which are ill-prepared to deal with it the key
message from the whu-oh is to prepare all countries for the possibility of an
outbreak and to ensure they are ready to contain it the whu-oh also says that
the world is still not ready for a global pandemic that often we operate on a
quote cycle of panic and neglect so basically we throw money at problems when
they break out but do nothing to ensure we're prepared to prevent the next one
the world remains dangerously unprepared for a global pandemic for too long the
world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect we throw money at an
outbreak and when it's over we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the
next one this is dangerously short-sighted and frankly difficult to undera
serious and imminent threat to public health but the overall risk in the UK
remains moderate for those of you who visited China Thailand Japan the Republic
of Korea Hong Kong Taiwan Singapore Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and
have a cough fever or difficulty breathing public health.
England says you must
contact your GP by phone a number of experts have said there's no need for the
general public to wear masks in places where the risk of infection is low the
current w-h-o infection control advice for the general public does not mention
masks or goggles focusing instead on hand-washing covering the mouth while
sneezing and avoiding raw and undercooked food to stop transmission of this
virus it's very important that sick people wear masks that's for clear for
people who have no symptoms the masks will not necessarily protect them 100%
because if they don't apply other measures it's not sufficient so my message is
more that mask alone is not enough it's a package of measures that you have to
put in place and if people use the entire package is fine if they just use
masks I think it's not enough so that's how the novel corona virus went from an
unknown infection in the market in Wuhan to a global health scare that has
dominated news headlines for most of 2020 what comes next depends on how
countries around the world cooperate to ensure the virus is contained.
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