authorities in China say the death toll
from the coronavirus has now passed the
800 mark that means the disease has now
killed more people than the deadly SARS
outbreak nearly two decades ago almost
all the reported deaths and most of the
new infections are in the Chinese
province of Hubei where the corona virus
was first discovered globally there are
now some 37,500 confirmed cases of the
virus china says there have been fewer
new infections than in previous days but
overall the virus continues to spread on
Monday millions of Chinese are expected
to return to work after the extended
Lunar New Year break is over
nevertheless China is still far from
back to normal this is the extent to
which China is trying to get a grip on
this outbreak medical officials forcibly
remove a family from their home it is
believed they had just returned from
Wuhan and had refused to self quarantine
a third man is determined not to go
without a struggle in the end it takes
for adults to drag him out at the World
Health Organization the spread of the
disease isn't their only struggle a
tablet oh we're not just battling the
virus we are also battling the trolls
and conspiracy conspiracy theorists that
push misinformation and undermine the
outbreak response with more than 800
fatalities the corona virus has killed
more people than SARS but the real
number could be higher whistleblowers
have reported doctors not diagnosing
cases and disposing of bodies meanwhile
rescue flights continue starti Filipinos
were flowing out of Wuhan groans zero of
this virus and landed back in the
Philippines on Sunday more than 20
countries are now affected with almost
40,000 cases among them a family of five
living in the French Alps
were infected after coming into contact
with a man who'd been in Singapore my
daughter was in the same class as the
boy who has contracted the corona virus
and what we really condemn as parents is
that we haven't received any information
either from the school or from the City
Hall and what we should do now so I can
return you to local schools will be shut
for the next week authorities here
finding that like the virus and
misinformation concerned spread quickly
to mysterious Moscow is a molecular
biologist from Northumbria University in
Newcastle in the UK and he joins me now
Sarah hi
more people have now died from the
corona virus than from the deadly SARS
outbreak nearly 20 years ago is that a
court calls for new worries no it's not
I'm quite simply because the number of
cases that we have for corona virus by
far outstrip the number of cases overall
but we have four stars so the relative
danger of the virus is much smaller I
think what we need to pay attention is
the requirement for people to be
informed or collect information and feed
the virus is almost exclusively
affecting China right now there's a
handful of cases around the world that
is in itself cause for attention and
concern but for public health
authorities and government is not at the
moment
something that people on the tape of day
life should be concerned about he just
raised the point about a family whose
child was in the same school that's the
one affected in the out that is it a
gaping example of where information
needs to be conveyed quickly and
efficiently to inform these individuals
that if there aren't symptoms or flu and
there has been a potential risk of
exposure to somebody who's being in the
affected territories then they need to
stay at home and notify the local health
authorities and there's a simple as that
so not a cause for mass panic yet but
the infection rate is still high but
China's saying there's been a slowdown
in the numbers of people contracting the
virus now I
we reached the outbreak speak know what
we are saying is that the number of
people getting affected is remaining
fairly consistent it's it's not
accelerating one hospitals you know we
all are gonna make our preferencing will
happen till the next few days house big
people return to work in China the
economy has been will continue moving on
the real risk is that we have the
disease the number of severe cases is
quite relatively high and those cases
place a substantial burden on health
care providers anyone even in the West
if we have those kind of numbers we
would be struggling to keep up with the
cases so that's the concern where it
stands the next concern there's the
availability of medical supplies to the
Chinese there's a there's a lot of
people out there even heavy Newcastle
lipsync people wearing masks you don't
need to be wearing a mask unless you you
yourself are experiencing flu symptoms
and this is not my opinion this is what
the w-h-o recommends people are going to
we're holding masks this is not what we
need to be doing because it's not enough
for us any protection from getting the
virus we need to be making resources
available to China and other countries
were under-resourced compared to China
so that if the situation gets worse they
have the necessary supplies to corporate
stereo three more shots Moscow's many
thanks for that update welcome