China announced on Monday the death of a third person due to infection with the mysterious virus that began to emerge last month, while the epidemic spread to other parts of the country and reached South Korea, coinciding with the Chinese New Year celebrations.
The disease, which appeared in December in a market in Wuhan (central China), reached three other Asian countries - Japan, Thailand and South Korea, and the number of confirmed cases was 221, including 217 in China.
For the first time Monday, Chinese health authorities announced new HIV infections outside the large city of Wuhan with a population of 11 million, including five cases in Beijing (north) and 14 in the southern Guangdong Province bordering Hong Kong.
Chinese President Xi Jinping recently broke his silence over the spread of the disease, calling for "resolute containment of the spread of the epidemic," state television reported Monday evening.
The virus also reached South Korea, where local health authorities disclosed that a 35-year-old Chinese woman had been infected with it, which arrived by air from Wuhan on Sunday.
The South Korean health authorities said that the woman visited a hospital in Wuhan for a cold, and doctors prescribed medicines for her before she arrived at Seoul Airport, where her symptoms had been detected, and she was quarantined.
The virus raises increasing fears after the death of a third person on the weekend since the outbreak of the disease, and with a noticeable increase in the number of new infections in Wuhan (140 new cases, 198 cases in total), including nine critical cases.
Despite this, the city's health authorities are trying to reassure the population, saying that the risk of transmission between humans is "weak" but "not excluded."
- Anxiety abroad - The spread of the virus comes as Chinese New Year celebrations approach, the most prolonged period of transportation in the country. Hundreds of millions of people began traveling on buses, trains and planes to visit their families before the holiday on January 25.
Despite the risk of an outbreak, the authorities have yet to impose no restrictions on the use of public transport.
This new virus belongs to the Coruna virus strain, which contains a large number of viruses. These viruses may result in diseases that are harmless to humans, such as the common cold, but they may also lead to severe diseases such as SARS, that is, acute respiratory syndrome.
This latest virus is highly contagious, and caused about 650 people to die in China and Hong Kong between 2002 and 2003.
The SARS symptoms are similar to those caused by any normal pneumonia, with high fever and breathing problems.
The World Health Organization criticized China at the time for being late in issuing an alert about the spread of the disease.
Anxiety about the new virus is emerging outside China, where several preventive measures are being taken.
Since Friday, the United States has monitored flights from Wuhan to San Francisco and John F. Kennedy International Airports in New York, which are served by two direct flights from Wuhan. Similar measures are also being taken at Los Angeles Airport.
Thailand, where two cases were also detected, reinforced its airports.
The Hong Kong authorities have taken additional control measures on its borders with mainland China, especially using body temperature detectors.
Over the weekend, scientists from the Imperial College Research Center in London, which advises organizations such as the World Health Organization, questioned Chinese official figures, saying that the number of injuries had exceeded a thousand since January 12.
The researchers counted the number of cases revealed up to now outside China, and concluded from them the number of people who may have been physically injured in Wuhan, based on data for international flights coming from Wuhan Airport.