AllTop Viral!

The Center for Disease Control has said it is likely the coronavirus will reach pandemic levels in the United States, and they’re suggesting that American “prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.” Work and schools may be canceled or transitioned to teleconferencing.

Meanwhile, an Olympic official has said that the summer games in Tokyo may be canceled if the virus outbreak is not contained by May.

Twelve Italian towns are on lockdown after the country became the most infected one outside Asia. So far, there are 215 confirmed cases and five deaths. The Dow has plunged 1,000 points––the most in over a year––on the news of the coronavirus’s spread to Italy and South Korea.

The virus is starting to spread more rapidly, it seems. Two weeks ago, an 80-year-old man from Hubei, China died in France. His was the first death in Europe and only the third outside China.

A U.S. citizen died in Wuhan, which is apparently the first foreign death from the virus. The virus is still spreading around the world––five British citizens have caught the virus at a French ski resort in the most recent outbreak.

The people of China have taken to the internet––the only place they can safely protest––to express their anger and frustration at the death of Li Wenliang, the doctor who tried to warn the world of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Chinese government is now threatening to throw people in jail if they criticize its handling of the coronavirus. The government has also been accused to burning bodies to keep the extent of the viral spread secret. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has declared the spread of coronavirus a world emergency.

The CDC is currently monitoring 110 possible cases of coronavirus across 26 states. Although the spread seems rapid, the CDC says that the danger is still low, and that people should not worry––yet.

Things are looking much more grim in China, where it has spread to Xinjiang, the province containing Uighur concentration camps. The camps are filthy, and if coronavirus infects even one person there, it could spread like wildfire.

The number of known cases of coronavirus has risen by almost a third overnight, and a lack of test kits has some fearing the number could be much higher. What’s worse, Japan and Germany have just confirmed patients who have not been to China have the disease.

According to a scientist who simulated just such and outbreak, we’re too late. It’s like, he said, that the “cat’s already out of the bag” and China’s efforts to maintain the outbreak are “unlikely to be effective.”

Hong Kong is banning visitors from the Chinese province that saw the initial outbreak. But they’re probably fighting a losing battle. Canada has probably already seen its first case of the coronavirus. A man in his 50s became seriously ill after returning from a trip to Wuhan, China. Unfortunately, Chinese scientists have determined that the virus spreads before symptoms present, so the man likely spread the virus as he traveled.

That would explain, in part, how cases have already been reported in the United States as well. Orange County confirmed it’s first case this weekend, for example, and someone is currently being treated in Seattle (mostly by robots). There are also cases in Europe. The UK is currently trying to track down some 2,000 people who traveled from Wuhan.

There is evidence that China deliberately downplayed the seriousness of the virus, which undoubtedly contributed to its international spread and contributed to the deaths of 56 people so far.

More news.