By the numbers
FEARS CORONAVIRUS COULD BE CONTRACTED IN THE WOMB AFTER DAY-OLD BABY IN WUHAN TESTS POSITIVE- NEWSWEEK
Some incredible journalism emerging around the reporting of the coronavirus story, imagine just for a minute, what it must be really like to be in Wuhan right now. A number of journalists are - read NPR’s Emily Feng & Amy Cheng’s chilling piece:
(people) are risking infection themselves to care for loved ones, rather than send them off to isolation wards. "At this critical moment, we are family and I have to take care of them. Nobody else will do it," said Pearl Tian, 23. Both her parents have been diagnosed with the coronavirus but neither has been able to get hospital care because of their relatively mild symptoms and a lack of hospital space.
The shutdown of public transit in Wuhan has made it difficult for the sick to reach the city's hospitals. Tian's parents ride their scooters twenty minutes each day to the hospital for immunoglobulin injections Tian says they are paying for out of pocket until a hospital is willing to take her parents in.
"I have never experienced anything like this before. I have been forced to grow up," said Tian, who is also caring for her 13-year old brother. "I am scared. Everyone is scared."
Plus this revealing NYTimes piece on a taxi driver ferrying people around Wuhan.
By the numbers- NYTimes: deaths near 500, no sign of a slowdown of cases in China:
The death toll from the monthlong coronavirus outbreak has continued to climb in China, rising to 490. New cases have surged by double-digit percentages in the past 11 days, with no sign of a slowdown.
More people have now died in this epidemic than in the SARS outbreak of 2002-3 in mainland China. During that outbreak, 349 people died in the mainland.
The new figures from China’s Health Commission on Wednesday showed that 65 people died on Tuesday and that 3,887 more people had been infected. So far, 24,324 people are known to have been infected.
The good news: the number of people in China recovering from the virus is rising. On Tuesday, 262 people left hospitals nationwide. The number of suspected cases has dropped for two days in a row. Officials said they were tracking 3,971 suspected cases, compared with 5,173 cases the day before.
On Tuesday, health officials released details of the deaths so far, saying that two-thirds of them were men. More than 80 percent were over 60 years old, and they typically had pre-existing health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes.
Hubei Province has been hardest hit by the virus, and is home to the bulk of deaths (479) and infections (16,678). Wuhan in particular has borne the brunt of the deaths and infections.
More good news: The Verge (USA) reporting: FDA issues emergency approval for coronavirus diagnostic test; samples no longer have to be sent to the CDC for testing.
This will speed things up:
“The ability to distribute this diagnostic test to qualified labs is a critical step forward in protecting the public health,” said FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn in a statement.
The FDA sidestepped the usual regulatory channels and signed off on the test under an Emergency Use Authorization, which allows the use of medical products in life-threatening situations when no approved alternatives are available. The agency previously issued emergency authorizations for tests for MERS, Ebola, and Zika.
So far, 260 people have been under investigation for the coronavirus in the United States. Only 11 have been confirmed positive, and 167 have tested negative. The remaining 82 cases are still pending. The test only takes between four and six hours to run, but it can take significantly more time for state health departments to ship samples to the CDC central lab in Atlanta, Georgia. Now, state labs will be able to run the tests themselves, speeding up the process.
The CDC submitted a request for emergency authorization to the FDA on Monday. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at that time that the approval would significantly expand the US’s ability to test people suspected of having the virus. She said the CDC had already shipped the test to the International Reagent Resource, the central distributor for diagnostic tests, so it would be available as soon as approval came through.
But then: Princess Cruises quarantines 3,700 for two weeks on ship after 10 aboard test positive for coronavirus
Forbes: Bill And Melinda Gates Donate $100 Million To Coronavirus Vaccine Research
Axios: a good update on what we know and what we don’t
Finally, the BBC: The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is a "window of opportunity" to stop the deadly new coronavirus becoming a broader global crisis.