The Chinese authorities have identified the ‘Patient Zero’, most likely the first patient of the Covid-19 pandemic is a shrimp seller from the Wuhan market. The 57-year-old lady named Wei Guixian was selling shrimps as usual in the Huanan Seafood Market on December 10 when she developed a cold.

Believing she had the common flu, Wei went to a local clinic for treatment where she was given an injection. However, Wei continued to feel weak and visited Eleventh Hospital in Wuhan a day later. The feeling of lethargy persisted and Wei visited one of the biggest medical facilities in the region, Wuhan Union Hospital on December 16. The Wuhan Union Hospital accepted and studied the case which showed the characteristics of a new illness unknown to mankind. She was quarantined and after one month of isolation treatment was recovered fully.

“Coronaviruses clearly have the ability to cross species boundaries and adapt to new hosts, which allows us to more directly predict more coronaviruses in the future,” the hospital study states. So humans need more research to help formulate public health policies to deal with the emergence of similar viruses.