Chinese health system warned that due to virus mutations they will have difficulty stopping the outbreak • So far, 17 have died of the virus
Chinese civilians wearing masks // Photo: AP
The Chinese government on Wednesday warned that the Corona virus is changing and evolving, and could continue to spread, despite the country's huge efforts to stop the severe outbreak, which has so far killed 17 people in the country.
Gao Fu, chairman of the National Center for Infectious Disease in China, told the media that the virus's ability to evolve and adapt makes the monitoring and stopping of the disease particularly complex. "We are still in the process of learning and understanding this disease," Fu admitted.
Li Bin, deputy chairman of the Chinese National Health Commission, said today at a news conference that his country has isolated 2,197 people who came in contact with buyer virus patients, of whom 756 were released to their homes but the rest are still undergoing extensive isolation testing.
A first case of the Corona virus was discovered yesterday in the city of Seattle, Washington state in the United States. The patient, a resident of Shuhomish County, Washington state, contracted the disease during a trip to the city of Vaughan, China, where the disease was first identified.
The corona virus, a contagious and life-threatening respiratory disease, was detected in China last month after a panic caused by an unknown contagious disease. Of the 400 infected with the disease, 17 people died from the virus, 11 of them on the last day.
Earlier this week, authorities in China first admitted that the disease was transmitting from patient to patient, after long denied the rumors that it was an infectious disease. State media cited the government expert team, which confirmed that the infection did occur.
On Monday, a first case of the disease was discovered outside China's borders when a Chinese woman in her thirties was diagnosed with a virus after landing at Incheon International Airport, South Korea.
Researchers link the virus infection center to the Vaughan Fish Market, where dozens of the first cases of the infection were discovered. While authorities in China claim that the virus does not pass from patient to patient, the spread of the disease indicates that the virus is probably contagious. According to experts, in view of the non-stop of the virus, the disease is now expected to spread to other countries outside China, with the first countries expected to suffer from Japan, Thailand and Singapore.