China is BLOCKING Foreign Office from airlifting Britons out of Wuhan

China ‘is BLOCKING’ Foreign Office from airlifting Britons out of coronavirus-hit Wuhan, as UK officials urge anyone who is able to get out as soon as they can

• Foreign Office officials are waiting for permission to airlift Brits from the deserted city, currently in lockdown
• Jeremy Hunt told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme the government will ‘undoubtedly be looking at’ an airlift
• Other ministers have reportedly said Beijing’s approval is one of the obstacles British ministers are waiting on
• British ex-pats and tourists stuck in Wuhan have asked officials to ‘get us out of here’ because of the outbreak 
• France and the US have both already confirmed plans to whisk residents out of Wuhan and take them home 
• Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday said ministers were ‘looking at all options’ to help Britons leave Wuhan

China has been accused of blocking ministers from evacuating hundreds of Britons from coronavirus-hit Wuhan – despite official guidance urging any residents stuck in the Chinese city at the heart of the killer outbreak to get out if they are able to.

Foreign Office officials are waiting for permission to airlift Brits from the deserted city, currently in lockdown as part of a desperate attempt to contain the SARS-like infection that scientists fear may have already struck tens of thousands of people. 

Jeremy Hunt told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme the government will ‘undoubtedly be looking at’ an airlift, but admitted there will be ‘a lot of logistical issues’. Other ministers have reportedly said Beijing’s approval is one of the obstacles British ministers are waiting on.  

British ex-pats and tourists stuck in Wuhan have begged officials to ‘get us out of here’, venting their frustrations at the Government’s response so far. One Foreign Office sourced admitted keeping Brits in Wuhan ‘could prove to be a death sentence’. France and the US have both already confirmed plans to whisk residents back home. 

In other developments: 

• China today extended its New Year holiday to fight the killer coronavirus outbreak which has killed 81 people and struck down more than 2,800 people  
• Scientists following the outbreak fear more than 100,000 people have been infected already, considerably more than official toll – others have said it could as high as 350,000  
• Reports have surfaced that some suspected coronavirus carriers coming to the UK may have been wrongly told they don’t need to be tested unless they have ‘the sniffles’
• France’s Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said anyone wanting to leave Wuhan would be taken back on a direct flight and then held in quarantine for two weeks
• China’s health minister Ma Xiaowei said ‘it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger’ and it can be passed from person-to-person even before symptoms appear

China today extended its New Year holiday to fight the killer coronavirus outbreak which has killed 81 people and struck down more than 2,800 people Scientists following the outbreak fear more than 100,000 people have been infected already, considerably more than official toll – others have said it could as high as 350,000

Medical staff in Wuhan, the crisis-hit city at the centre of the outbreak, help a patient off the back of an ambulance yesterday (Photo issued today, January 27)

An ambulance driver in protective gear delivers medical supplies on a deserted street in Wuhan, Hubei (Photo issued today, January 27)

Panic has spread out of the Hubei province, where the outbreak began almost a month ago, and across the country and the wider world. Pictured, a man has his temperature checked at a train station in Beijing, China’s capital (Pictured today, January 27)

British ex-pats and tourists stuck in Wuhan have begged officials to ‘get us out of here’, venting their frustrations at the Government’s response so far.

About 300 Britons who live in the city are growing increasingly anxious after the number of virus cases soared by 50 per cent in just 24 hours.

They accused the UK of dithering as it emerged the US, France, Spain and Japan had already organised evacuations for its citizens.

France

France’s health minister Agnes Buzyn said officials will put ‘hundreds’ of citizens on a direct flight to the country later in the week.

She said authorities were working on arranging a bus service to get the expats to the airport.

There are some 800 French citizens stranded in the Wuhan area.

She said French nationals will be held in quarantine for two weeks on arrival to stop the virus spreading on home soil.

French car manufacturer Peugeot Citroen, which has a factory in Wuhan, said it was moving foreign employees and their families by bus to be quarantined in another city.

The US

The US State Department is organising a single flight out of Wuhan on Tuesday directly to San Francisco.

It said in the event there are not enough seats, priority will be given to to individuals ‘at greater risk from coronavirus’ – those already showing symptoms.

Officials invited US citizens with a valid passport to contact the embassy in Beijing.

Private citizens are expected to later repay the travel costs, the notice said.

There are roughly 1,000 Americans living in and around the Wuhan area.

Japan

Japan said it planned to evacuate all of its citizens using chartered flights. It claimed it was in final discussions about the logistics with Chinese authorities.

Some 430 Japanese nationals reside in or near Wuhan.

The government is also considering evacuation by road from Hubei Province, and have Japanese nationals take flights home from other places, according to Japanese media.

Spain

Spain’s foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez tweeted this morning that Spanish official are trying to evacuate 20 Spaniards stranded in Hubei province.

She did not provide further details.

Thailand

The government is meeting today to discuss how to evacuate the 70 known expats living in Wuhan, most of whom are students.

Air force commander ACM Manat Wongwat said that up to four planes with medical staff are on stand-by to evacuate its citizens in the coming days.

The Times reported Britain’s plan to whisk residents out of Wuhan was being hampered by Beijing. It is thought that anyone flying back to the country would have to be quarantined to prevent the potential spread of the virus – France has already announced a similar plan.

Former Health Secretary Mr Hunt said he would be ‘very sympathetic’, when asked if he supported flying Britons back from Wuhan. He added that it would be ‘very, very challenging for the NHS’ if cases were to crop up in the UK but accepted that doctors and nurses ‘will do exactly what they need to’.

The Foreign Office has confirmed it is working on making an ‘option available’ for British nationals to leave Wuhan in the Hubei province in China, saying the ‘safety and security of British nationals is always our primary concern’. No further details about the plan have been given – but it has told anyone in the Hubei province can call a 24-hour helpline.  

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab ordered officials to examine the exact logistics for an airlift out of Wuhan, it was reported yesterday, Although a source said ‘a number of things need to fall into place on the Chinese side before we can make any firm promises’. 

A senior Government source said: ‘It is a fast-moving situation and it requires some tough calls to be made. But the situation is now so bad locally, and the medical system so overstretched, that it could prove to be a death sentence. We need to get people out.’

Demand for action from expats trapped in Wuhan grew louder when China’s own President Xi Jinping admitted his country was facing a ‘grave situation’. Cases of the never-before-seen virus in China have now been confirmed in every province of the country except Tibet. 

Fifty-two UK patients have already been tested for coronavirus. NHS staff have also been briefed on how to handle corpses infected with the lethal Chinese virus after it was revealed it had spread to three locations in France over the weekend.

The dossier published by Public Health England warns that the virus – which has stricken two in Paris and another in Bordeaux – is ‘accelerating’. Five cases of the unnamed coronavirus have now been recorded in both the US and Australia, and Canada announced its first case over the weekend. 

PHE’s document obtained by The Sunday Times advises: ‘The act of moving a recently deceased patient onto a hospital trolley for transportation to the mortuary might be sufficient to expel small amounts of air from the lungs and thereby present a minor risk.

‘A body bag should be used for transferring the body and those handling the body at this point should use full PPE [personal protective equipment].’ Furthermore, medics meeting any potentially infected people should wear ‘full-face visors’, while GPs should avoid contact with patients and place them into immediate quarantine.

Despite the strict guidance to try to contain the virus, one British teacher who has spent the last decade in Wuhan fears he may be spreading the virus throughout the UK because he claims he was given the wrong advice by an NHS 111 operator.

David Marland lived just five minutes from the seafood market thought to be at the centre of the outbreak in Wuhan. He told The Telegraph that he called the helpline as soon as he stepped off a plan at Gatwick Airport from Dubai, via Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen, last week. 

But instead of being hauled in for tests in isolation, the 34-year-old alleges that he was only asked if he had the ‘sniffles’ and to only call back if he began to feel unwell – even though it has since been revealed that patients can be infectious without showing any symptoms.

Dr Yvonne Griffiths, 71, from Thornhill in Cardiff, has been posted in Wuhan for three weeks with colleagues from Birmingham City University

Jeremy Hunt (left) told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme the government will ‘undoubtedly be looking at’ an airlift, but admitted there will be ‘a lot of logistical issues’. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has ordered officials to examine the logistics for an airlift, it has been reported

Coronavirus: What we know so far 

What is this virus?

The virus has been identified as a new type of coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of pathogens, most of which cause mild respiratory infections such as the common cold.

But coronaviruses can also be deadly. SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is caused by a coronavirus and killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong in the early 2000s.

Can it kill?

Yes. Eighty-one people have so far died after testing positive for the virus. 

What are the symptoms?

Its symptoms are typically a fever, cough and trouble breathing, but some patients have developed pneumonia, a potentially life-threatening infection that causes inflammation of the small air sacs in the lungs. People carrying the novel coronavirus may only have mild symptoms, such as a sore throat. They may assume they have a common cold and not seek medical attention, experts fear.

How is it detected?

The virus’s genetic sequencing was released by scientists in China to the rest of the world to enable other countries to quickly diagnose potential new cases. This helps other countries respond quickly to disease outbreaks.

To contain the virus, airports are detecting infected people with temperature checks. But as with every virus, it has an incubation period, meaning detection is not always possible because symptoms have not appeared yet.

How did it start and spread?

The first cases identified were among people connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan.

Cases have since been identified elsewhere which could have been spread through human-to-human transmission.

What are countries doing to prevent the spread?

Countries in Asia have stepped up airport surveillance. They include Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines.

Australia and the US are also screening patients for a high temperature, and the UK announced it will screen passengers returning from Wuhan.

Is it similar to anything we’ve ever seen before?

Experts have compared it to the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The epidemic started in southern China and killed more than 700 people in mainland China, Hong Kong and elsewhere

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE MAILONLINE’S FULL Q&A ON THE CORONAVIRUS 

Mr Marland, from Buckinghamshire, said: ‘I’m potentially a risk to other people. I’m still within the two-week period so I could be spreading the disease everywhere without having any symptoms… Maybe I should be staying away from people, but no one has told me to. They haven’t given me any advice at all. I’m just getting on with my life – what else am I supposed to do?’

He accused the NHS operator of just ‘ticking boxes’ and ‘leaving the door open’ to the killer virus. But NHS sources told The Telegraph that the operator had correctly followed advice – which comes from Public Health England and says to ring if you ‘develop a fever, difficulty breathing or a cough’.

All of the UK patients who have already been tested for the virus have been found to be negative. But a Public Health England boss last week warned it was ‘highly likely’ the never-before-seen virus will eventually come to the UK, as the infection continues to rampage across China. 

Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday revealed the Government was ‘looking at all options’ to help Britons leave Wuhan. Foreign Office officials have reportedly prepared a charter flight for around 200 British citizens and diplomats trapped in Wuhan, where 11million are on lock-down. MailOnline has asked for an update. 

The Department of Health is set to issue an update later this afternoon on the number of Britons who have been tested for the constantly-mutating virus, which experts have suggested may originally have come from bats or snakes and been passed to humans.

Scientists fear China’s status as a major superpower may have influenced the World Health Organisation’s decision not to declare the coronavirus outbreak as being an international emergency last week, with the UN-body saying it was ‘too early’ for such a decision. 

Baffled experts warned the decision may have been influenced by China. Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘The criteria for declaring a public health emergency of international concern have been met.’ But ‘not all WHO decisions are made based on the developments in the biological world,’ he added. 

It came after a top Chinese health official said that the new virus was becoming more contagious than SARS –from the same family of coronaviruses which killed nearly 650 people across Beijing and Hong Kong in 2003. 

Dr Yvonne Griffiths, 71, from Cardiff, has been posted in Wuhan for three weeks with two colleagues from Birmingham City University. The university had arranged for the English language lecturer and her colleagues to fly back on Monday but there have been no updates on when the airport will re-open.

‘Although there’s been so much in the media about the virus and about the risk of students travelling back and forwards from the UK, there doesn’t seem to be anything about stranded individuals like ourselves,’ Dr Griffiths told the BBC.

‘And it seems maybe the British government has a lack of either concern or lack of planning in place, I’m not sure. I think there’s a lot of uncertainty – that’s what’s frustrating at the moment as much as disappointing.’  

Construction workers are pictured at the site where the government ordered a new hospital to be built in less than a week to help Wuhan cope with surging coronavirus cases (Photographer today, January 27)

Medical staff are pictured at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, where thousands of people are infected

WHAT IS CHINA’S TRAVEL SITUATION? 

Flights to and from China are still available – except in the Hubei province, where Wuhan is – but tourists may struggle to travel inside the country. 

The UK Foreign Office has advised against all travel to the Hubei province where the coronavirus spawned.

The eastern city of Wuhan is under lock-down and the government has enforced an effective travel ban, meaning public buses and trains, as well as roads, have all been closed so people cannot get in or out of the city.

The same measures were reportedly taken last week in at least a dozen nearby cities in Hubei, including Huanggang, Ezhou, Zhijiang, Dangyang, Qianjiang, Chibi, Xiantao, Lichuan, Jingmen, Xianning, Yichang and Enshi.

China’s two most major cities, Beijing and Shanghai, have announced bans on long-distance buses entering or leaving. 

Cruise operators including Royal Caribbean Cruises, and Costa Cruises said they had cancelled a combined 12 cruises that had been scheduled to embark from Chinese ports before February 2. 

Airports around the world have stepped up screening of passengers from China, although some health officials and experts have questioned the effectiveness of these efforts.

Her daughter Bethan Webber said she and her mother were struggling to sleep with the stress of the situation. Dr Griffiths described the streets in Wuhan as ‘completely deserted’ and that she had been advised to remain in the hotel where people are wearing face masks. 

British expats are reportedly exchanging angry messages on social media about the apparent intransigence of the Foreign Office in response to their pleas to ‘get us out of here’. 

France’s health minister Agnes Buzyn yesterday said officials would put ‘hundreds’ of citizens on a direct flight to the country later in the week. She said authorities were working on arranging a bus service to get the expats to the airport.

There are thought to be some 800 French citizens stranded in the Wuhan area. She said French nationals will be held in quarantine for two weeks on arrival to stop the virus spreading on home soil. French car manufacturer Peugeot Citroen, which has a factory in Wuhan, said it was moving foreign employees and their families by bus to be quarantined in another city.

The US State Department is organising a single flight out of Wuhan tomorrow directly to San Francisco. It said in the event there are not enough seats, priority will be given to to individuals ‘at greater risk from coronavirus’.

Officials invited US citizens with a valid passport to contact the embassy in Beijing. Private citizens are expected to later repay the travel costs, the notice said. There are roughly 1,000 Americans living in and around the Wuhan area.

Japan said it planned to evacuate all of its citizens using chartered flights. It claimed it was in final discussions about the logistics with Chinese authorities. Some 430 Japanese nationals reside in or near Wuhan.

The government is also considering evacuation by road from Hubei Province, and have Japanese nationals take flights home from other places, according to Japanese media. 

Spain’s foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez tweeted this morning that Spanish official are trying to evacuate 20 Spaniards stranded in Hubei province. She did not provide further details. 

And the Thai government is meeting today to discuss how to evacuate the 70 known expats living in Wuhan, most of whom are students. Air force commander ACM Manat Wongwat said that up to four planes with medical staff are on stand-by to evacuate its citizens in the coming days. 

Despite growing fears about the virus on the streets of Britain, thousands of revellers celebrated Chinese new year over the weekend. Infection concerns did not dampen festivities, as a 50-foot golden dragon and a bagpipe procession travelled across London from Charing Cross to Chinatown where hundreds of red lanterns lined the streets. 

The three patients in France are doing ‘very well,’ France’s director-general of health Jerome Salomon said.

However, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo said Sunday that the Chinese Lunar New Year parade in the city – where two are infected – was being cancelled as a ‘precaution.’  

‘Yesterday, I met members of the Chinese community in Paris who themselves wished to cancel the procession’ scheduled for Republique square, the mayor told reporters.   

Health officials in France were tracking other people the three had been in contact with.  

Britain’s Department of Health confirmed it is trying to find ‘as many passengers as we can’ who arrived from Wuhan in the past two weeks to check on their wellbeing.

It is understood Border Force officers have been recruited to help speed up the search for passengers as testing for the virus continues in the UK.

A man sprays disinfectant in a waiting hall at Nanjing Railway Station in Nanjing, China, today, January 27

A medical worker at Wuhan’s Jinyintan Hospital is pictured treating a coronavirus patient who was transferred there from elsewhere in the city

A driver and passenger have their temperatures checked by people at a traffic stop in Tengzhou, Shandong

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF THE CORONAVIRUS?

Once someone has caught the virus it may take between two and 14 days for them to show any symptoms.

If and when they do, typical signs include:

• a runny nose
• a cough
• sore throat
• fever (high temperature)

The vast majority of patients – at least 97 per cent, based on available data – will recover from these without any issues or medical help.

In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. 

Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people. 

One British man who had travelled to Wuhan to visit his girlfriend is stuck in the city after his return flight on February 3 was cancelled, and he described trying to get out of the area as ‘impossible’.

The 29-year-old, who did not want to be named, said: ‘There have been sporadic warnings from local government in Chinese to tell us that there will be road closures.

‘There is no news on when the airport will re-open therefore the airline (China Southern) have just cancelled the flight.

‘I’ve also had no help from the UK Embassy in Beijing who are conveniently closed for the weekend.’

England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said there is a ‘fair chance’ cases will emerge in Britain. 

The professor spoke following a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee in Whitehall on Friday, chaired by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

He said: ‘I am working closely with the other UK chief medical officers.

‘We all agree that the risk to the UK public remains low, but there may well be cases in the UK at some stage.’

He added: ‘The UK has access to some of the best infectious disease and public health experts in the world.

‘A public health hub will be set up in Heathrow from today. This consists of clinicians and other public health officials, in addition to existing port health measures.’

In an interview, Prof Whitty said: ‘We think there’s a fair chance we may get some cases over time.

‘Of course this depends on whether this continues for a long time, or whether this turns out to be something which is brought under control relatively quickly.’

He added: ‘I think we should definitely see this as a marathon, not a sprint, we need to have our entire response based on that principle.

‘At the minute it definitely looks like this is a lot less dangerous if you get it than Ebola, and a lot less dangerous than the recent coronavirus MERS, and it’s probably less dangerous if you get it than SARS virus.

‘What we don’t know is how far it’s going to spread, that really is something we need to plan for all eventualities.’ 

What do we know about the deadly coronavirus? What are the symptoms… and how worried SHOULD the world really be?

It emerged yesterday that the deadly coronavirus spreading across Asia is far more contagious than previously thought and someone who is infected can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze, scientists say.

Twenty-six people with the virus are now confirmed to have died and more than 800 have been infected in at least nine countries. But experts predict the true number of people with the disease could be as many as 10,000 as they warn it may kill as many as two in 100 cases.  Here’s what we know so far:

What is the Wuhan coronavirus? 

A coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. It is an RNA virus (RNA is a type of genetic material called ribonucleic acid), which means it breaks into cells inside the host of the virus and uses them to reproduce itself.

This coronavirus from Wuhan is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. It is currently named 2019-nCoV, and does not have a more detailed name because so little is known about it.

Dr Helena Maier, from the Pirbright Institute, said: ‘Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that infect a wide range of different species including humans, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and wild animals. 

‘Until this new coronavirus was identified, there were only six different coronaviruses known to infect humans. Four of these cause a mild common cold-type illness, but since 2002 there has been the emergence of two new coronaviruses that can infect humans and result in more severe disease (Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses). 

‘Coronaviruses are known to be able to occasionally jump from one species to another and that is what happened in the case of SARS, MERS and the new coronavirus. The animal origin of the new coronavirus is not yet known.’ 

The first human cases were publicly reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where approximately 11million people live, three weeks ago after medics first started seeing cases in December.

By January 8, 59 suspected cases had been reported and seven people were in critical condition. Tests were developed for the new virus and recorded cases started to surge.

The first person died that week and, by January 16, two were dead and 41 cases were confirmed. The next day, scientists predicted that 1,700 people had become infected, possibly up to 4,500.

Today, just one week later, there have been more than 800 confirmed cases and those same scientists estimate that some 4,000 – possibly 9,700 – were infected in Wuhan alone. There are now 10 countries with confirmed cases and 26 people have died. 

Where does the virus come from?

Nobody knows for sure. Coronaviruses in general tend to originate in animals – the similar SARS and MERS viruses are believed to have originated in civet cats and camels, respectively.

The first cases of the virus in Wuhan came from people visiting or working in a live animal market in the city, which has since been closed down for investigation.

Although the market is officially a seafood market, other dead and living animals were being sold there, including wolf cubs, salamanders, snakes, peacocks, porcupines and camel meat.

Bats are a prime suspect – researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a recent statement: ‘The Wuhan coronavirus’ natural host could be bats… but between bats and humans there may be an unknown intermediate.’

And another scientific journal article has suggested the virus first infected snakes, which may then have transmitted it to people at the market in Wuhan.

Peking University researchers analysed the genes of the coronavirus and said they most closely matched viruses which are known to affect snakes. They said: ‘Results derived from our evolutionary analysis suggest for the first time that snake is the most probable wildlife animal reservoir for the 2019-nCoV,’ in the Journal of Medical Virology.

So far the fatalities are quite low. Why are health experts so worried about it? 

Experts say the international community is concerned about the virus because so little is known about it and it appears to be spreading quickly.

It is similar to SARS, which infected 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 in an outbreak in Asia in 2003, in that it is a type of coronavirus which infects humans’ lungs.  

Another reason for concern is that nobody has any immunity to the virus because they’ve never encountered it before. This means it may be able to cause more damage than viruses we come across often, like the flu or common cold.

Speaking at a briefing yesterday, Oxford University professor, Dr Peter Horby, said: ‘Novel viruses can spread much faster through the population than viruses which circulate all the time because we have no immunity to them.

‘Most seasonal flu viruses have a case fatality rate of less than one in 1,000 people. Here we’re talking about a virus where we don’t understand fully the severity spectrum but it’s possible the case fatality rate could be as high as two per cent.’

If the death rate is truly two per cent, that means two out of every 100 patients who get it will die. 

‘My feeling is it’s lower,’ Dr Horby added. ‘We’re probably missing this iceberg of milder cases. But that’s the current circumstance we’re in.

‘Two per cent case fatality rate is comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 so it is a significant concern globally.’

How does the virus spread?

Information has emerged today, Thursday, suggesting that the illness may spread between people just through coughs and sneezes, making it an extremely contagious infection.

It is believed to travel in the saliva and therefore close contact, kissing and sharing cutlery or utensils are risky. Because it infects the lungs, it is also likely present in droplets people cough up which, when inhaled, can infect the next person.

Originally, people were thought to be catching it from a live animal market in Wuhan city. But cases soon began to emerge in people who had never been there, which forced medics to realise it was spreading from person to person.

There is now evidence that it can spread third hand – to someone from a person who caught it from another person.

What does the virus do to you? What are the symptoms?

Once someone has caught the virus it may take between two and 14 days for them to show any symptoms.

If and when they do, typical signs include a runny nose, a cough, sore throat and a fever (high temperature). The vast majority of patients – at least 97 per cent, based on available data – will recover from these without any issues or medical help.

In a small group of patients, who seem mainly to be the elderly or those with long-term illnesses, it can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in which the insides of the lungs swell up and fill with fluid. It makes it increasingly difficult to breathe and, if left untreated, can be fatal and suffocate people. 

What have genetic tests revealed about the virus? 

Scientists in China have recorded the genetic sequences of around 19 strains of the virus and released them to experts working around the world. 

This allows others to study them, develop tests and potentially look into treating the illness they cause.   

Examinations have revealed the coronavirus did not change much – changing is known as mutating – much during the early stages of its spread.

However, the director-general of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, yesterday said the virus was mutating and adapting as it spread through people.

This means efforts to study the virus and to potentially control it may be made extra difficult because the virus might look different every time scientists analyse it.   

More study may be able to reveal whether the virus first infected a small number of people then change and spread from them, or whether there were various versions of the virus coming from animals which have developed separately.

How dangerous is the virus?  

The virus has so far killed 26 people out of a total of at least 800 officially confirmed cases – a death rate of around three per cent. This is a higher death rate than the Spanish Flu outbreak which, in 1918, went on to kill around 50million people.

However, experts say the true number of patients is likely considerably higher. Imperial College London researchers estimate that there were 4,000 (up to 9,700) cases in Wuhan city alone up to January 18 – officially there have only been 444 there to date. If cases are in fact 100 times more common than the official figures, the death rate may be considerably lower.

Experts say it is likely only the most seriously ill patients are seeking help and are therefore recorded – the vast majority will have only mild, cold-like symptoms. For those whose conditions do become more severe, there is a risk of developing pneumonia which can destroy the lungs and kill you.  

Can the virus be cured? 

The Wuhan coronavirus cannot currently be cured and it is proving difficult to contain.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so they are out of the question. Antiviral drugs can, but the process of understanding a virus then developing and producing drugs to treat it would take years and huge amounts of money.

No vaccine exists for the coronavirus yet and it’s not likely one will be developed in time to be of any use in this outbreak, for similar reasons to the above.

The National Institutes of Health in the US, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, say they are working on a vaccine based on what they know about coronaviruses in general, using information from the SARS outbreak. But this may take a year or more to develop, according to Pharmaceutical Technology.

Currently, governments and health authorities are working to contain the virus and to care for patients who are sick and stop them infecting other people.

People who catch the illness are being quarantined in hospitals, where their symptoms can be treated and they will be away from the uninfected public.

And airports around the world are putting in place screening measures such as having doctors on-site, taking people’s temperatures to check for fevers and using thermal screening to spot those who might be ill (infection causes a raised temperature).

However, it can take weeks for symptoms to appear, so there is only a small likelihood that patients will be spotted up in an airport.

Is this outbreak an epidemic or a pandemic?   

The outbreak has not officially been confirmed as either an epidemic or a pandemic yet. This is likely because, despite the global concern, the number of people who have been confirmed to be infected is still relatively low.

A pandemic is defined by the World Health Organization as the ‘worldwide spread of a new disease’.

An epidemic is when a disease takes hold of a smaller community, such as a single country, region or continent.

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