The Coronavirus has taken a new turn, making its way out of China. It was first discovered in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. As of one week ago, there are now roughly 75,250 cases in China with 1,622 total deaths. Out of the 75,250 people infected, 6,210 people have recovered. Containment chances are low as the case numbers are increasing. 

“The window of opportunity we have for containing this virus is narrowing,” Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said. 

The Coronavirus has been declared a pandemic and is spreadable from person-to-person.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 50 countries that the Coronavirus has reached. 

 A pandemic is a disease that affects an entire country or the whole world. It can last from a few weeks to a few years. An epidemic is a disease that is actively spreading and growing fastly out of control.  

“This has been a realistic risk for a month, and the signal to trigger that kind of preparedness has only been going out in the last few days in an explicit way,” Jeremy Konyndyk, a Senior Policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, Washington said. “That’s a huge problem.”

The first case in the United States that has been transmitted “through community exposure,” according to The Los Angeles Times, happened in UC Davis Medical Center, California. This means that the person infected by the virus hadn’t had any contact with someone who was a traveler from another country.

“If the majority of testing is all around airports or travelers, we won’t know whether it’s circulating in communities,” Dr. Tom Ingesbly, Director of the Center for Health Security of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said.

The incubation period of the virus has been known to be up to 27 days, meaning that you can have the virus and still pass it on without showing any symptoms, according to Pharmaceutical-Technology. The official name of the Coronavirus is COVID-19. 

“In Hubei province, hard-hit by the coronavirus epidemic, an infected 70-year-old man did not exhibit Covid-19 symptoms until 27 days later.”

“On 24 January, the man had close contact with his infected sister,” said Hubei government website. “He had a fever on 20 February and received test confirmation the next day.”

According to CDC, there have been 445 people tested for the virus in the US with 14 confirmed cases. 

“We have just 200 kits, and that’s for not just the traditional diagnostic, but also surveillance. It’s simply inadequate,” Gavin Newsom said on February 27, 2020.

Some symptoms of COVID-19 are shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches, dry cough, and fatigue. The most common symptom of the virus is fever. Since the virus spreads through person-to-person contact, it is very easily spread in big gatherings and crowds. 

Things you can do to boost your immune system are washing your hands often, eating fruits/vegetables, and exercising. Eating high amounts of sugar is known to suppress your immune system, so avoiding sugar would be beneficial.

Thirteen people from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship have been brought to Nebraska at the National Quarantine Center for treatment. They have been given antiviral medicines which they have been responding to well, helping them to recover from the virus. 

“We know that it’s contagious enough that if a person is sick, sending them to a hospital is going to make more people sick,” Dr. Michael Baden said. “So, you keep them at home as long as you can and try to cut down the spread even if people have the virus because most of the people will recover by themselves without much treatment.”