LONDON: Coronavirus cases worldwide has overtaken that of the SARS epidemic, which spread to more than two dozen countries in 2003.
There were around 8,100 cases of SARS – severe acute respiratory syndrome – reported during the eight-month outbreak. But nearly 10,000 cases of the new virus have been confirmed, most in China, since it emerged in December.
More than 100 cases have been reported outside China, in 22 countries.
The number of deaths so far stands at 213 – all in China. In total, 774 people were killed by SARS.
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On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency over the new outbreak. The UK on Friday confirmed its first two cases of the virus.
In another development, the US also declared a public health emergency and said it would bar any foreign nationals who have visited China in the past two weeks from entering the country.
Estimates by the University of Hong Kong suggest the true total number of cases could be far higher than official figures suggest. Based on mathematical models of the outbreak, experts there say more than 75,000 people may have been infected in the Chinese city of Wuhan alone, where the virus originated.
Most cases outside China are in people who have been to Wuhan. But Germany, Japan, Vietnam, the United States, Thailand and South Korea have reported person-to-person cases – patients being infected by people who had traveled to China.
Wuhan’s Communist Party chief said on Friday the city should have taken measures sooner to contain the virus. “If strict control measures had been taken earlier, the result would have been better than now,” Ma Guoqiang told state broadcaster CCTV.
As governments around the world acted to contain the virus, WHO spokesman Chris Lindmeier warned that closing borders could in fact accelerate its spread, with travellers entering countries unofficially. “As we know from other scenarios, be it Ebola or other cases, whenever people want to travel, they will. And if the official paths are not opened, they will find unofficial paths,” he said.
He said the best way to track the virus was at official border crossings.
With input from INP
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