Biotechnology company Novacyt has applied for emergency approval from
the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) as it races to roll out a
product that tests for the coronavirus, the company said on Friday.
Novacyt, which is listed in Paris and London, also said it was in talks with public sector hospitals in Britain.
Its Paris-listed shares jumped by around 20 percent by 0830 GMT.
“As one of the first companies to develop and launch a test to detect
the 2019 strain of nCoV (coronavirus), we have received unprecedented
interest,” Novacyt CEO Graham Mullis said.
“We continue to support our new and existing customers and are
working with the various regulatory authorities to try to make our nCoV
test available to as many countries and laboratories as possible,” he
added.
The death toll from the fast-spreading coronavirus in mainland China
has reached 636, with 73 more deaths recorded as of Thursday, China’s
National Health Commission said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-novacyt/biotech-company-novacyt-seeks-emergency-approval-for-coronavirus-test-idUSKBN2010Q8
Saturday, February 8, 2020
China’s virus epicenter Hubei speeds testing after complaints
China’s Hubei province, the coronavirus outbreak epicentre, has
started using a faster and more convenient method of testing in order to
isolate patients more quickly, the official People’s Daily reported on
Friday.
Reuters reported last month that a lack of RNA test kits in Hubei capital Wuhan may have delayed patients from being properly diagnosed and treated, contributing to the spread of the virus in the early days of the outbreak.
Hubei will start recognising computerized tomography (CT) scan results as confirmation of suspected infections of the coronavirus, which has killed over 600 people in China, the newspaper said on its official Weibo account, citing a document published by the National Health Commission on Feb. 5.
The move could significantly shorten testing time and allow more prompt treatment in the province, doctors and epidemiologists said. Previously, China’s health authorities had a stricter rule for identifying such cases, and patients were often denied access to be treated full-time without RNA tests that could take days to process.
“The biggest advantage of CT scans is ‘fast’ – we can see the results immediately,” Qi Xiaolong, Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean at the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, said in an email to Reuters.
“As we’re facing the shortage of virus test-kits in Wuhan and other virus-stricken areas near it (or the shortage of professional testing staff), current case-confirming procedures cannot meet the requirement of diagnosis and treatment,” he said, adding the quality of reagents and proficiency in sample retention could also affect the accuracy of the test results.
In contrast, CT scan results have proven highly reliable and can yield results in just minutes, Cheng Zhenshun, Director of the department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, said earlier this week.
“We’ve finally seen this change happen,” a Wuhan Weibo user surnamed Zhang wrote in a post commenting on the news. “This will give patients a lot more confidence.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-testing/chinas-virus-epicentre-hubei-speeds-testing-after-complaints-idUSKBN2011QV
Reuters reported last month that a lack of RNA test kits in Hubei capital Wuhan may have delayed patients from being properly diagnosed and treated, contributing to the spread of the virus in the early days of the outbreak.
Hubei will start recognising computerized tomography (CT) scan results as confirmation of suspected infections of the coronavirus, which has killed over 600 people in China, the newspaper said on its official Weibo account, citing a document published by the National Health Commission on Feb. 5.
The move could significantly shorten testing time and allow more prompt treatment in the province, doctors and epidemiologists said. Previously, China’s health authorities had a stricter rule for identifying such cases, and patients were often denied access to be treated full-time without RNA tests that could take days to process.
“The biggest advantage of CT scans is ‘fast’ – we can see the results immediately,” Qi Xiaolong, Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean at the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, said in an email to Reuters.
“As we’re facing the shortage of virus test-kits in Wuhan and other virus-stricken areas near it (or the shortage of professional testing staff), current case-confirming procedures cannot meet the requirement of diagnosis and treatment,” he said, adding the quality of reagents and proficiency in sample retention could also affect the accuracy of the test results.
In contrast, CT scan results have proven highly reliable and can yield results in just minutes, Cheng Zhenshun, Director of the department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, said earlier this week.
“We’ve finally seen this change happen,” a Wuhan Weibo user surnamed Zhang wrote in a post commenting on the news. “This will give patients a lot more confidence.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-testing/chinas-virus-epicentre-hubei-speeds-testing-after-complaints-idUSKBN2011QV
Scientists question work suggesting pangolin coronavirus link
Independent scientists questioned research on Friday that suggested
that the outbreak of coronavirus disease spreading from China might have
passed from bats to humans through the illegal traffic of pangolins.
South China Agricultural University, which said it had led the
research, said on its website that the “discovery will be of great
significance for the prevention and control of the origin (of the new
virus)”.
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus strain separated from pangolins in the study was 99% identical to that from infected people. It said the research had found pangolins – the world’s only scaly mammals – to be “the most likely intermediate host.”
But James Wood, head of the veterinary medicine department at Britain’s University of Cambridge, said the research was far from robust.
“The evidence for the potential involvement of pangolins in the outbreak has not been published, other than by a university press release. This is not scientific evidence,” he said.
“Simply reporting detection of viral RNA with sequence similarity of more than 99% is not sufficient. Could these results have been caused by contamination from a highly infected environment?”
Pangolins are one of Asia’s most trafficked mammals, despite laws banning the trade, because their meat is considered a delicacy in countries such as China and their scales are used in traditional medicine.
The outbreak of disease caused by the new coronavirus, which has killed 636 people in mainland China, is believed to have started in a market in the city of Wuhan that also sold live wild animals.
Virus experts think it may have originated in bats and then passed to humans, possibly via another species.
Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at Britain’s University of Nottingham, said that while the South China Agricultural University research was an interesting development, it was still unclear “whether or not the endangered pangolin really is the reservoir”.
“We would need to see all of the genetic data to get a feel for how related the human and pangolin viruses are, and also gain an understanding of how prevalent this virus is in pangolins and whether or not these were being sold in the Wuhan wet markets,” he said.
Dirk Pfeiffer, a professor of veterinary medicine at Hong Kong’s City University, also said the research was a long way from establishing a link between pangolins and the new coronavirus outbreak in humans.
“You can only draw more definitive conclusions if you compare prevalence (of the coronavirus) between different species based on representative samples, which these almost certainly are not,” he said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-pangolins/scientists-question-work-suggesting-pangolin-coronavirus-link-idUSKBN2010XA
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus strain separated from pangolins in the study was 99% identical to that from infected people. It said the research had found pangolins – the world’s only scaly mammals – to be “the most likely intermediate host.”
But James Wood, head of the veterinary medicine department at Britain’s University of Cambridge, said the research was far from robust.
“The evidence for the potential involvement of pangolins in the outbreak has not been published, other than by a university press release. This is not scientific evidence,” he said.
“Simply reporting detection of viral RNA with sequence similarity of more than 99% is not sufficient. Could these results have been caused by contamination from a highly infected environment?”
Pangolins are one of Asia’s most trafficked mammals, despite laws banning the trade, because their meat is considered a delicacy in countries such as China and their scales are used in traditional medicine.
The outbreak of disease caused by the new coronavirus, which has killed 636 people in mainland China, is believed to have started in a market in the city of Wuhan that also sold live wild animals.
Virus experts think it may have originated in bats and then passed to humans, possibly via another species.
Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at Britain’s University of Nottingham, said that while the South China Agricultural University research was an interesting development, it was still unclear “whether or not the endangered pangolin really is the reservoir”.
“We would need to see all of the genetic data to get a feel for how related the human and pangolin viruses are, and also gain an understanding of how prevalent this virus is in pangolins and whether or not these were being sold in the Wuhan wet markets,” he said.
Dirk Pfeiffer, a professor of veterinary medicine at Hong Kong’s City University, also said the research was a long way from establishing a link between pangolins and the new coronavirus outbreak in humans.
“You can only draw more definitive conclusions if you compare prevalence (of the coronavirus) between different species based on representative samples, which these almost certainly are not,” he said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-pangolins/scientists-question-work-suggesting-pangolin-coronavirus-link-idUSKBN2010XA
American dies of coronavirus in China; infections spread to French ski resort
A 60-year-old American has died of the new coronavirus, the first
confirmed non-Chinese death of the illness, U.S. officials said, as
millions of Chinese began returning home after a Lunar New Year break
that was extended to try to contain the outbreak.
While the vast majority of cases have been in China, the virus has
spread to some two dozen countries abroad, with the latest such cases
including five British nationals infected in a French ski resort.
The American man died on Thursday in Wuhan, epicenter of the virus outbreak in the central Chinese province of Hubei, a U.S. embassy spokesman said in Beijing on Saturday.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” he told Reuters. “Out of the respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.”
A Japanese man in his sixties and hospitalized with pneumonia in Wuhan also died after suffering symptoms consistent with the new coronavirus, Japan’s foreign ministry said.
The death toll in mainland China rose to 722 on Saturday, according to authorities, and is poised to pass the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Most of the deaths in China have occurred in and around Wuhan. Across mainland China, the number of cases stood at 31,774 as of Saturday.
The virus has spread to 27 countries and regions, according to a Reuters count based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people. Two deaths have been reported outside of mainland China – in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Both victims were Chinese nationals.
The latest patients include five British nationals staying in the same chalet at a ski resort in Haute-Savoie in southeastern France, health officials said, raising fears of further infections as British families head for the Alps during the school half-term holidays.
The five had stayed in the same ski chalet with a person who had been in Singapore. They were not in a serious condition, the officials said.
The Chinese economy will sputter towards normal on Monday, as
millions return from the provinces to the big cities after the biggest
holiday of the year. The holiday was extended, but many workplaces will
remain closed and many white-collar workers will continue to work from
home.
U.S. electric carmaker Tesla’s (TSLA.O) factory in Shanghai will resume production on Monday, a government official said on Saturday.
Apple Inc APPL.O said it was working to reopen its China corporate offices and call centers and was making preparations to reopen retail stores there.
But Chinese authorities have blocked a plan by Apple supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) to resume production from Feb. 10 over concerns about the spread of the virus, Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.
The virus has been a blow to China’s already-slowing economy, with
Goldman Sachs cutting its first-quarter GDP growth target to 4% from
5.6% previously and saying a deeper hit is possible.
“It’s certainly not going to be a return to normal next week,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics in Singapore.
“The longer this disruption continues the higher the risk it affects employment and the higher the risk of a much bigger hit on the economy,” he said.
“It is hard to say how lethal this novel coronavirus infection is,” Professor Allen Cheng, an infectious diseases expert at Monash University in Melbourne, told Reuters.
“While the crude mortality appears to be around 2%, there are likely to be many people who have been infected that haven’t been tested … We probably won’t know the true case fatality for some time yet.”
News of the death on Friday of Li Wenliang, a doctor who was reprimanded by police for raising the alarm about the new coronavirus, sparked outrage on Chinese social media and rekindled memories of how Beijing was slow to tell the world about the SARS outbreak.
Beijing’s communist leadership has sealed off cities, canceled flights and closed factories to contain the epidemic, a response that has had ripple effects globally for financial markets and businesses dependent on the world’s second-biggest economy.
Chinese-ruled Hong Kong introduced a two-week quarantine on Saturday for all people arriving from the mainland, or who have been there during the previous 14 days.
While China is bearing the brunt of the virus, anxiety is increasing across Asia, with Japan alarmed by the rising number of cases aboard a quarantined cruise ship, major foreign companies pulling out of an international air show in Singapore, and Thailand losing money as Chinese tourists stay home.
Another three people on the cruise liner off Japan tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases from the ship to 64, Japan’s health ministry said.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL.N) on Friday banned “any guests holding Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passports, regardless of when they were there last” from boarding the company’s ships.
The World Health Organization warned on Friday warned against the “unnecessary, unhelpful profiling of individuals based on ethnicity”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health/american-dies-of-coronavirus-in-china-infections-spread-to-french-ski-resort-idUSKBN20003J?il=0
The American man died on Thursday in Wuhan, epicenter of the virus outbreak in the central Chinese province of Hubei, a U.S. embassy spokesman said in Beijing on Saturday.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” he told Reuters. “Out of the respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.”
A Japanese man in his sixties and hospitalized with pneumonia in Wuhan also died after suffering symptoms consistent with the new coronavirus, Japan’s foreign ministry said.
The death toll in mainland China rose to 722 on Saturday, according to authorities, and is poised to pass the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Most of the deaths in China have occurred in and around Wuhan. Across mainland China, the number of cases stood at 31,774 as of Saturday.
The virus has spread to 27 countries and regions, according to a Reuters count based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people. Two deaths have been reported outside of mainland China – in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Both victims were Chinese nationals.
The latest patients include five British nationals staying in the same chalet at a ski resort in Haute-Savoie in southeastern France, health officials said, raising fears of further infections as British families head for the Alps during the school half-term holidays.
The five had stayed in the same ski chalet with a person who had been in Singapore. They were not in a serious condition, the officials said.
U.S. electric carmaker Tesla’s (TSLA.O) factory in Shanghai will resume production on Monday, a government official said on Saturday.
Apple Inc APPL.O said it was working to reopen its China corporate offices and call centers and was making preparations to reopen retail stores there.
But Chinese authorities have blocked a plan by Apple supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) to resume production from Feb. 10 over concerns about the spread of the virus, Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.
“It’s certainly not going to be a return to normal next week,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics in Singapore.
“The longer this disruption continues the higher the risk it affects employment and the higher the risk of a much bigger hit on the economy,” he said.
‘HARD TO SAY HOW LETHAL’
Health officials are still uncertain how deadly the illness is.“It is hard to say how lethal this novel coronavirus infection is,” Professor Allen Cheng, an infectious diseases expert at Monash University in Melbourne, told Reuters.
“While the crude mortality appears to be around 2%, there are likely to be many people who have been infected that haven’t been tested … We probably won’t know the true case fatality for some time yet.”
News of the death on Friday of Li Wenliang, a doctor who was reprimanded by police for raising the alarm about the new coronavirus, sparked outrage on Chinese social media and rekindled memories of how Beijing was slow to tell the world about the SARS outbreak.
Beijing’s communist leadership has sealed off cities, canceled flights and closed factories to contain the epidemic, a response that has had ripple effects globally for financial markets and businesses dependent on the world’s second-biggest economy.
Chinese-ruled Hong Kong introduced a two-week quarantine on Saturday for all people arriving from the mainland, or who have been there during the previous 14 days.
While China is bearing the brunt of the virus, anxiety is increasing across Asia, with Japan alarmed by the rising number of cases aboard a quarantined cruise ship, major foreign companies pulling out of an international air show in Singapore, and Thailand losing money as Chinese tourists stay home.
Another three people on the cruise liner off Japan tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases from the ship to 64, Japan’s health ministry said.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL.N) on Friday banned “any guests holding Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passports, regardless of when they were there last” from boarding the company’s ships.
The World Health Organization warned on Friday warned against the “unnecessary, unhelpful profiling of individuals based on ethnicity”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health/american-dies-of-coronavirus-in-china-infections-spread-to-french-ski-resort-idUSKBN20003J?il=0
Coronavirus cases inch up in U.S. but still very light
In Friday’s update from
the CDC, the total number of potential coronavirus cases in the U.S. is
337. Specimens tested to date include 12 positives, 225 negatives and
100 pending.
Three days ago, the total was 293 (11 positives, 206 negatives and 76 pending).
Selected tickers: THW, BME, GRX, IXJ, KMED, XLV, CODX, NNVC, REGN, GILD, GSK, JNJ, NVAX, LAKE, AHPI, APT
Update: At a news conference
Friday, an official speaking for the Trump administration’s coronavirus
taskforce stated that two of the 12 confirmed positive cases in the
U.S. to date occurred in people who had not recently visited China (both
were spousal contacts of people who had traveled there). The risk to
Americans has not changed from last week, remaining low. The CDC’s test
for 2019-nCoV can be ordered by qualified laboratories and institutions.
This week, the State Department helped deliver 17.8 tons of relief
supplies to Hubei province. About 4,000 air travelers/day are being
screened.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3539753-coronavirus-cases-inch-up-in-u-s-still-lightFriday, February 7, 2020
Infectious disease expert to clinicians on coronavirus: Just ask patients 1 question
Anthony Fauci, M.D., has some simple advice for clinicians faced with
a patient with respiratory symptoms and a fever—the signs of
coronavirus.
“Just ask them a question: ‘Have you been in China recently?’” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in a JAMA podcast.
If the patient has been in China where the coronavirus outbreak began and is still growing rapidly, “you put a mask on the person, you put them in an isolation room and you contact the CDC,” said Fauci, about notifying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are now 12 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. The 12th known case was confirmed in Wisconsin by the CDC, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said in a statement Wednesday. The patient is an adult with a history of travel to Beijing prior to becoming ill and was exposed to known cases while in China.
Other cases in the U.S. were reported in California, Arizona, Illinois, Washington and Massachusetts.
Health officials expect to find additional cases of coronavirus infection in the U.S. and more cases of person-to-person spread among close contacts of those diagnosed with the virus, Nancy Messonnier, M.D., director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a Monday briefing.
The U.S. declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31, and President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation temporary suspending entry into the U.S. of foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the illness.
American citizens and permanent residents who fly to the U.S. from China are now subject to a two-week quarantine.
Officials in China reported Wednesday that at least 490 people have died from the coronavirus and 24,324 were confirmed to be infected. That was up from 425 deaths and 20,438 confirmed cases the day before, according to The New York Times.
Cases of the coronavirus have been concentrated in China, but more than 200 individuals have been detected with the virus in 28 locations outside China, including the U.S., Messonnier said Wednesday.
Fauci, who co-authored a JAMA viewpoint
titled, “Coronavirus Infections—More than Just the Common Cold,” was
interviewed in a podcast by JAMA Editor-in-Chief Howard Bauchner, M.D.,
about the disease.“Just ask them a question: ‘Have you been in China recently?’” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in a JAMA podcast.
If the patient has been in China where the coronavirus outbreak began and is still growing rapidly, “you put a mask on the person, you put them in an isolation room and you contact the CDC,” said Fauci, about notifying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are now 12 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. The 12th known case was confirmed in Wisconsin by the CDC, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said in a statement Wednesday. The patient is an adult with a history of travel to Beijing prior to becoming ill and was exposed to known cases while in China.
Other cases in the U.S. were reported in California, Arizona, Illinois, Washington and Massachusetts.
Health officials expect to find additional cases of coronavirus infection in the U.S. and more cases of person-to-person spread among close contacts of those diagnosed with the virus, Nancy Messonnier, M.D., director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a Monday briefing.
The U.S. declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31, and President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation temporary suspending entry into the U.S. of foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the illness.
American citizens and permanent residents who fly to the U.S. from China are now subject to a two-week quarantine.
Officials in China reported Wednesday that at least 490 people have died from the coronavirus and 24,324 were confirmed to be infected. That was up from 425 deaths and 20,438 confirmed cases the day before, according to The New York Times.
Cases of the coronavirus have been concentrated in China, but more than 200 individuals have been detected with the virus in 28 locations outside China, including the U.S., Messonnier said Wednesday.
Bauchner’s last question to Fauci was about what clinicians should
do, because patients are likely to be anxious about the illness and may
seek care.
“You know, it’s easy,” Fauci said, directing doctors to the CDC’s guidance for healthcare professionals.
Fauci said the situation is, however, made more difficult by the fact it’s the peak of influenza season. “You’re going to get a lot of people that are going to be coming in with respiratory infections,” he said. However, if a patient presents with a respiratory pulmonary issue, such as cough or shortness of breath, and fever, the important thing is to determine whether the patient has been in China.
The CDC says healthcare providers should notify both infection control personnel at their healthcare facility and their local or state health department in the event they have a patient under investigation (what the government calls a PUI) for coronavirus. State health departments are told to immediately contact the CDC’s emergency operations center.
Fauci’s advice echoed that of CDC officials who advised healthcare providers to watch for people with travel history to China and fever and respiratory symptoms. Healthcare providers caring for patients with coronavirus are also being advised to following recommended infection control procedures.
In a briefing Wednesday, Messonnier said health officials are now evaluating the national stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE)—masks, gloves and gowns—that healthcare workers use to protect themselves from exposure to illnesses. “We’re working with healthcare and industry parties to understand the supply chain,” she said.
She urged healthcare workers to use PPE “appropriately” but not “excessively,” because the country may need to preserve supplies if the risk from coronavirus becomes higher. Naturally, if the outbreak lasts a long time, the projections of PPE stockpiles look very different than if the virus is short-lived, she said. “Currently, the risk to the public is low,” she said, and health officials do not think members of the public need to go out and buy protective masks.
JAMA has established a resource center for coronavirus, which includes updates on diagnosis and treatment.
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/infectious-disease-expert-to-clinicians-coronavirus-just-ask-patients-one-question
“You know, it’s easy,” Fauci said, directing doctors to the CDC’s guidance for healthcare professionals.
Fauci said the situation is, however, made more difficult by the fact it’s the peak of influenza season. “You’re going to get a lot of people that are going to be coming in with respiratory infections,” he said. However, if a patient presents with a respiratory pulmonary issue, such as cough or shortness of breath, and fever, the important thing is to determine whether the patient has been in China.
The CDC says healthcare providers should notify both infection control personnel at their healthcare facility and their local or state health department in the event they have a patient under investigation (what the government calls a PUI) for coronavirus. State health departments are told to immediately contact the CDC’s emergency operations center.
Fauci’s advice echoed that of CDC officials who advised healthcare providers to watch for people with travel history to China and fever and respiratory symptoms. Healthcare providers caring for patients with coronavirus are also being advised to following recommended infection control procedures.
In a briefing Wednesday, Messonnier said health officials are now evaluating the national stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE)—masks, gloves and gowns—that healthcare workers use to protect themselves from exposure to illnesses. “We’re working with healthcare and industry parties to understand the supply chain,” she said.
She urged healthcare workers to use PPE “appropriately” but not “excessively,” because the country may need to preserve supplies if the risk from coronavirus becomes higher. Naturally, if the outbreak lasts a long time, the projections of PPE stockpiles look very different than if the virus is short-lived, she said. “Currently, the risk to the public is low,” she said, and health officials do not think members of the public need to go out and buy protective masks.
JAMA has established a resource center for coronavirus, which includes updates on diagnosis and treatment.
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/infectious-disease-expert-to-clinicians-coronavirus-just-ask-patients-one-question
Coronavirus should taper off by April, S&P predicts
The novel coronavirus that threatens to
hobble the global economy, causing travel restrictions and the closure
of some U.S. retail stores in China, is expected to stabilize in April,
according to a projection from S&P Global Ratings.
S&P’s analysts said a worst-case scenario would involve
the virus spreading into late May, with an optimistic prediction calling
for an end to transmissions in March. The firm said the impact on
economic activity in Asia could peak around the middle of the year
before an economic rebound in 2021.
The novel coronavirus that has caused an outbreak in China
this year is a respiratory illness that causes flu-like symptoms, such
as fever, cough and shortness of breath. It can be spread through close
contact with an infected person who coughs or sneezes. The fatality rate
has been about 4.1% in Wuhan and less than 1% in China outside of the
Hubei province where Wuhan is located.
More than 28,200 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus
in Asia, and 565 have died in China, according to The New York Times.
Twelve cases had been documented in the U.S with no fatalities reported as of Thursday morning.
Brad Hutton, a deputy commissioner at the state Health
Department, said Thursday that the state has run drills to prepare for
how it would respond to a confirmed case and identify the person’s
recent contacts to stop the spread of the virus.
“It really is a success that thus far we have 12 cases in
the U.S. only,” Hutton said during a meeting of the state Public Health
and Health Planning Council. “The fact we have so few is the result of
the travel actions taken by the Chinese government and the U.S.
government to restrict travel.”
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/clinical/coronavirus-should-taper-april-sp-predicts
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