Outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019
Talha Burki
Published:February 17, 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30076-1
As the epidemic of scoronavirus disease 2019 continues, new issues on how to control it come to the fore. Talha Burki reports.
As The Lancet Infectious Diseases went to press, the situation with the ongoing epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that started in Wuhan, China, continued to rapidly evolve. As of 9 February 2020, China had confirmed 37?251 cases of COVID-19, an increase of 2657 since the previous day. 6188 of these cases were severe and there had been 812 deaths. Every region of the country has been affected. 24 other nations have reported 307 cases and one death. On Jan 30, 2020, WHO declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). “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”, explained WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom.