hundreds dead thousands infected across
multiple continents millions quarantined
with whole cities in lockdown but how
did the corona virus spread so quickly
we're going to trace the virus day by
day over the first month of the outbreak
following its path from patient zero and
China to across the world and what might
happen next as people everywhere
celebrate the start of a new decade the
World Health Organization is told that a
handful of people in the city of Wuhan
and China had pneumonia with no other
clear causes or origin but there's one
common theme that connects the patient's
wound and seafood wholesale market many
of these first cases are linked to
workers at the market selling live fish
birds and other animals as a precaution
the market is shut on January the 1st
nearly a week later on January the 7th
Chinese authorities say they've
identified the cause of the pneumonia a
new virus in the wider coronavirus group
which includes the common cold and stars
now this sparks serious concerns 17
years ago the SARS epidemic began in
China and went on to kill 800 people the
new virus is temporarily named 2019 and
CoV what becomes popularly known as the
corona virus seen here all beyo sure we
do a few days later on January the 9th
the first death is confirmed a 61 year
old man he was a regular visitor to the
market in Wuhan by now 41 people are
known to be infected with the virus at
this stage Wu Hans health Commission
says there's no evidence the virus could
spread between humans yet by week 2 the
new novel coronavirus isn't just
affecting China on January 13th Thailand
reports its first case now to understand
how and why the infection spread it's
key to look at the timing of it reports
of the first death in China came just
before Chinese New Year the country's
biggest holiday and a time when millions
are traveling all across the country and
abroad as planes left Wuhan Apple so too
did the virus on the 15th of January
Japan reports its first case
then on the 20th of January South Korea
does too on the same day that South
Korea reports its first case it's
confirmed the corona virus can pass from
person to person and official figures
become clearer as the World Health
Organization starts to publish daily
reports this is when the numbers erupt
with 282 cases reported from four
countries the next day 314 cases are
confirmed including 16 health care
workers it then jumps to 581 with the
majority still in China On January the
23rd with the numbers rising the city of
Wuhan is put under quarantine this is
usually a very busy street another
beautiful day in quarantine ruin anyone
in public is told to wear a face mask
and the Chinese government sends 300,000
extra mouths to help then at 2:00 a.m.
it's announced that all public transport
is to be shut down and anyone wanting to
leave the city has 8 hours before all
exits are closed from 10:00 a.m.
Wuhan a city with a population bigger
than London is in lockdown a brand new
1000 bed hospital begins to be built to
treat the virus with the aim of
completing the whole thing it's just a
matter of days China has history here in
the midst of the SARS epidemic in 2003
as Beijing battled severe acute
respiratory syndrome a new facility for
patients was constructed in just one
week almost a month after first learning
about the virus on the 13th of January
the w-h-o now declares a public health
emergency with the main reason being its
global spread away from China there are
now 82 cases in 18 countries but no
deaths outside of China yet and in
Germany Japan Vietnam France and the
United States people who have been to
China and now infect in those who
haven't come the last day in January the
virus spreads to England were two
members of the same family test positive
in China meanwhile there are now two
thousand new cases in just the last 24
hours and the virus has now reached
every state in the country bringing the
worldwide total to nine thousand eight
cases across 21 countries the biggest
quarantine in history right now taking
place in China I think you're gonna see
that more amplified now as a result of
this declaration the United States
declares a public health emergency and
says that it will begin temporarily
suspending entry for foreign nationals
who have traveled to China in the last
14 days that's against the advice of the
w-h-o yet there have still been no
deaths outside China come the start of
the month three more countries report
having the virus bringing the total to
24 following on from the United States
lead Australia says it will also refuse
entry to all non-citizens arriving from
China Australian nationals coming from
China will be quarantined for two weeks
something the UK South Korea Singapore
and New Zealand are beginning to also do
as they evacuate citizens from China and
monitor them for symptoms ever of
quarantine on Sunday the second of
February the first death is reported
outside of mainland China a 44 year old
Chinese man from Wuhan dies of the virus
in the Philippines and then by February
the 4th a second death outside the
Chinese mainland was confirmed in Hong
Kong so looking back from the start of
the year to February the 11th the novel
coronavirus has infected more than
43,000 people globally the majority of
those in China and the Chinese
authorities now say it's caused the
death of more than thousand people in
the country although the number of new
infections day by day has begun to
decline that means more people have died
from the novel coronavirus than they did
during the SARS outbreak in China but is
it as deadly and what does the first
month of this outbreak tell us about the
nature of the coronavirus currently
experts believe the virus has killed
around 3 percent of those it has
infected that's a lower death rate than
SARS which had a mortality rate of just
under 10 percent and other diseases like
Ebola which kills around 50% of those
infects however corona virus has
infected more than five times as many
people as SARS ever did so crucially
what might happen next a lot depends on
how well the virus is contained but we
can use right now or would record
non-pharmaceutical
mentions preventing mass gatherings
potentially closing schools potentially
even introducing travel restrictions
it's going to be a real challenge to
contain it the Chinese have been
applauded by the whu-oh for their
response to the virus with the
director-general saying they have set a
new standard for their reaction to the
outbreak the speed with which China
detected the outbreak isolated the virus
sequenced the genome and shared it with
whu-oh and the world are very impressive
now the Chinese have admitted to their
own shortcomings in their initial
dealings with the virus in the first few
days and weeks officials have been
accused of downplaying the severity of
the virus a doctor in Wuhan tried to
warn colleagues late in December and he
was accused by authorities for spreading
false information although they later
apologized then in early February the
doctor himself was killed by the very
virus he tried to warn against sparking
outrage at the Chinese government many
experts now believe that by not alerting
the public and healthcare professionals
much earlier a crucial opportunity was
lost to stop the disease from becoming
an epidemic the corona virus has been
contained to an extent by widespread
health interventions that means
quarantine in those infected to stop the
spread that relies on huge international
cooperation and identifying who's
infected where they've been and who
could have also got it countries are
already making huge steps to control it
like monitoring airports banning travel
and isolating patients but these methods
rely on the virus only spreading when
people show symptoms something which
scientists are unsure about another way
it could end is simply by a vaccine or a
cure researchers in multiple countries
are trying to find a vaccine but at the
moment there isn't one and it could be
months or even a year before there's a
breakthrough what we do know is that the
major risk comes from the virus
spreading to countries who do not have
as advanced health care systems these
countries will be less able to cope with
an outbreak and less effective at
quarantine and controlling the spread
our greatest concern is the potential
for the virus to spread to countries
with
weaker health systems and which are
ill-prepared to deal with it
the key message from the whu-oh is to
prepare all countries for the
possibility of an outbreak and to ensure
they are ready to contain it
the whu-oh also says that the world is
still not ready for a global pandemic
that often we operate on a quote cycle
of panic and neglect so basically we
throw money at problems when they break
out but do nothing to ensure we're
prepared to prevent the next one the
world remains dangerously unprepared for
a global pandemic for too long the world
has operated on a cycle of panic and
neglect we throw money at an outbreak
and when it's over we forget about it
and do nothing to prevent the next one
this is dangerously short-sighted and
frankly difficult to understand if we
fail to prepare we're preparing to fail
as China and other countries continue to
try to contain the virus what's the best
advice for you regarding the outbreak
the Department of Health in the UK has
called the coronavirus a serious and
imminent threat to public health but the
overall risk in the UK remains moderate
for those of you who visited China
Thailand Japan the Republic of Korea
Hong Kong Taiwan Singapore Malaysia or
Macau in the last 14 days and have a
cough fever or difficulty breathing
public health England says you must
contact your GP by phone a number of
experts have said there's no need for
the general public to wear masks in
places where the risk of infection is
low the current w-h-o infection control
advice for the general public does not
mention masks or goggles focusing
instead on hand-washing covering the
mouth while sneezing and avoiding raw
and undercooked food to stop
transmission of this virus it's very
important that sick people wear masks
that's for clear for people who have no
symptoms the masks will not necessarily
protect them 100% because if they don't
apply other measures it's not sufficient
so
my message is more that mask alone is
not enough it's a package of measures
that you have to put in place and if
people use the entire package is fine if
they just use masks I think it's not
enough so that's how the novel
coronavirus went from an unknown
infection in the market in Wuhan to a
global health scare that has dominated
news headlines for most of 2020
what comes next depends on how countries
around the world cooperate to ensure the
virus is contained