Taiwan reports 5th imported novel coronavirus case, HKU experts estimate more than 40K cases in Wuhan

By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews

Taiwan

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced the fifth imported case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV) in Taiwan.

The case is a 50-year-old female who resides in middle part of Taiwan. She went to Wuhan, China for work in the second half of October of 2019 and had neither history of activity in Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market nor history of contact with wild animals and poultry.

On January 20, 2020, the case returned to Taiwan, developed fever and muscle aches and was then hospitalized on January 25. The hospital reported the case and treated the patient in a negative pressure ward. On January 27, infection with the novel virus was confirmed in the case after testing.

The case is currently in a stable condition, and the hospital and local health agencies have proceeded with prevention measures, including the investigation of the case and contact tracing, according to relevant procedures.

Subscribe to Outbreak News TV on YouTube

Hong Kong University estimates

Experts with the University of Hong Kong estimate that as of Saturday, some 44,000 people in Wuhan alone were likely to have been infected by the new virus.

Around 25,000 of these were likely to be sick, with the others only in the incubation stage and not yet showing symptoms.

The dean of the university’s medical school, Gabriel Leung, said the number of people catching the virus is believed to have been doubling every 6 days to date.

The estimate is far higher than the more than 2700 cases officially reported.



