by Cynthia Ortiz & Kenady Craig // Editor-in-Chief & Features Edior
Recently, a new virus was detected in Wuhan, China. It’s name: the Coronavirus. The Coronavirus is said to be in the same family as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and symptoms include a runny nose, sore throat, cough, or an overall feeling of being unwell; although it is reported that some cases did not show any symptoms at all.
It’s origin, as stated by WIRED, “appears to have originated from a Wuhan seafood market where wild animals, including marmots, birds, rabbits, bats and snakes, are traded illegally.” Meaning the ingestion of said animals is what is assumed to have started the epidemic as a whole, bats being thought to be the front running cause of the problem in this investigation.
Since the outbreak, Wuhan has quarantined the infected and put a halt on a significant amount of nearby forms of travel in order to prevent it spreading even more, with The New York Times reporting there to be “more than 35 million people on lockdown.”
However, this also poses a problem for a plethora of Asians who travelled internationally for the Lunar New Year (January 25) who cannot return to their residence or risk carrying the disease home. According to BBC, this is the case for an estimated 4,500 people who have been confirmed to be carrying the disease.
As of February 3, it is said by CNN that it has infected 17,300 people globally and has killed 362. It has even carried over into the US with approximately 192 people who have been issued federal quarantine under the order of Health and Human Services on January 29, 2020. With new cases being confirmed and the more people being tested, without a cure we’re doomed.