Updated 5:00 p.m. on Feb. 4, 2020

As of Tuesday, Canada had five confirmed novel coronavirus cases. Here’s everything you need to know about 2019-nCoV that was first reported from Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, 2019:

What are the symptoms?

Fever, cough, sore throat, pneumonia and generally feeling unwell. If the infection travels to your lungs, you could have trouble breathing.

How does the illness spread?

Primarily through close contact with another individual, in particular through coughing and sneezing on somebody else who is within a range of about one to two metres from that person.

China’s health minister Ma Xiaowei said earlier that an infected person can spread the coronavirus to others before experiencing symptoms. But some scientists say they still do not know whether a person is infectious during the incubation period.

Should I start wearing a mask?

Canadian health officials say that wearing surgical masks during everyday life has little use in protecting against coronavirus, despite being effective in hospital settings. Early data on the new form of virus suggests masks won’t be especially effective, and some say that repeatedly touching and adjusting the masks with unwashed hands could do more harm than good.

When did it begin?

The first cases were reported near the end of December and are linked to people who worked at, or visited, a seafood market, since closed, in Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million people. Experts suspect that the virus was first transmitted from wild animals, and that it may be mutating. Mutations can make it deadlier and/or more contagious.

Who has died?

An examination of the information provided by the Chinese government about the deaths show a disease that has so far largely killed older men, many with underlying health problems.

What countries have seen cases?

The overwhelming majority of cases have been in China, but the illness has spread countries including Hong Kong, Canada, U.S., Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Macau, Australia, Malaysia, France, Germany, Finland, Taiwan, Cambodia, Nepal, Philippines, United Arab Emirates, India and Sri Lanka.

What is Canada doing?

The risk to Canadians remains low, officials say.

Travellers are asked additional health-screening questions at airports to help identify those who may have visited Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak. Travellers will either be asked at an electronic kiosk or directly by a border services officer.

Passengers arriving in Canada who visited Wuhan will be subjected to “closer screening.”

Anyone found to have flu-like symptoms will undergo further checks by the health agency.

What do we know about the new coronavirus?

Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said the novel noronavirus (2019-nCoV) comes from the same family that can lead to the common cold, and caused the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), about 17 years ago that killed at least 774 people worldwide, including 44 in Canada.

Dr. Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital, told the Star that it’s a new virus that cause infections in different animals, as well as humans.

“We still don’t know where it’s coming from or how easily it’s transmitted from human to human,” she said.

Previous severe outbreaks of human coronaviruses include SARS back in 2002-03, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012-17.

“Coronaviruses are known for their ability to change and evolve,” she said.

McGeer said you can only tell what virus it is by doing lab tests.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

She added that “the infections that people get from coronaviruses are indistinguishable from the kind of infections you get from other viruses.”

Is this new outbreak similar to SARS in 2003?

Early signs point to SARS being more deadly in 2003, but that the new coronavirus appears to be more contagious, given that this outbreak is spreading faster.

What has Canada learned from the SARS outbreak?

SARS caused a crisis in Toronto back in the early 2000s due to the sheer number of people infected with the disease (in Canada, there were 438 probable or suspected cases, resulting in 44 deaths, mostly in the GTA).

McGeer noted that the “primary problem with the SARS virus was that it was mostly transmitted when people were very ill in hospitals,” and so, if people weren’t diagnosed as having SARS, then human-to-human transmission was more common.

RELATED STORIES Canada Six questions scientists are scrambling to answer about the coronavirus

Since then, she noted that a lot of work has been done to prevent transmission in hospitals.

“Has that made a difference to how, how prepared we are for emerging infectious disease and new outbreaks? Yes, absolutely,” McGeer said.

However, she added that it is “a general truth in Canada that we have underfunded and under-resourced public health departments. So are we well prepared to deal with public health crises? No. How will we manage it? Bit hard to tell.”

What’s a global health emergency?

The World Health Organization declared last week that the outbreak sparked by the new coronavirus is a global emergency after the number of cases spiked more than tenfold in a week.

The UN health agency defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a co-ordinated international response.

A declaration of a global emergency typically brings greater financial and other resources, but may also prompt nervous governments to restrict travel and trade to affected countries. The announcement also imposes more disease-reporting requirements on countries.

Some useful terms to know:

Epidemic: The occurrence of more cases of disease than expected, spreading throughout a population and location over a period of time, according to Harvard’s medical dictionary.

Pandemic: Similar to epidemic, the outbreak of a disease that affects a region, country or continent.

Epidemiology: Deals with the control of disease in a population.

With files from Ilya Banares, David Venn, Patrick Ho and Star wire services

Read more about: