• Wuhan, markets stormed by residents stranded within the quarantined city
  • Wuhan: "Stay away from here." Images from the epicenter city of the Chinese virus epidemic

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January 23, 2020

600 cases of coronavirus pneumonia ascertained in China have exceeded 600, including 95 serious. There are now 25 deaths. The Chinese National Health Commission reports, referring to a count dating back to midnight yesterday, local time. The virus has affected 25 Chinese provinces.

In Fiumicino, security corridors for passengers from Wuhan
202 travelers from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus, passed through a dedicated "sanitary canal", away from the transit areas of the other arriving passengers. The procedures laid down by the authorities after the spread of the infection were applied to them for the first time. Special scanners checked the body temperature of the passengers of the China Southern Airlines direct flight Cz 645, which landed at 4.50 at Fiumicino airport. The airline flies to the airport three times a week.

"All passengers are fine"
"The health checks prepared by the Ministry of Health at Fiumicino airport on the 202 passengers and the crew who arrived in Rome this morning on the flight from Wuhan all gave a negative result. They are all doing well". This was reported this morning in the Roman airport Carlo Racani, health director of Aeroporti di Roma.

Beijing cancels New Years celebrations
To curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the city of Beijing canceled the Chinese New Year celebrations.

The virus passed to humans via snakes
The 2019-nCoV Chinese virus came to humans from snakes: these would be the animals in which the virus, transmitted by bats, would recombine and then pass on to humans. This is indicated by the genetic analysis published in the Journal of Medical Virology by Wei Ji, Wei Wang, Xiaofang Zhao, Junjie Zai, and Xingguang Li, from the universities of Beijing and Guangxi. The research was conducted on samples of the virus from different locations in China and from different host species. As has happened in the past with avian influenza viruses and Sars, this time too the index is aimed at live animal markets very common in China, where wild animals are sold alongside animals raised on farms and fish, like snakes and bats.

"The results of our evolutionary analysis suggest for the first time that the snake is the most likely wild animal reservoir of the 2019-nCoV virus," the researchers write. Genetic analyzes thus add a fundamental piece to the mosaic of the genetic composition of the 2019-nCoV virus, in which up to now only the sequence of the part of virus inherited from bats was clearly recognizable and identified from the beginning as belonging to the coronavirus family, the same that includes the Sars virus, which appeared in 2002, and the Mers virus of 2015; the mystery of where the other half of the virus came from remained to be solved.

Now it is clear that the 2019-nCoV virus is a mix of a coronavirus from bats and one that arrives from snakes and that it would pass on to humans, adapting to the new host and acquiring the ability to transmit from man to man . By genetically recombining in snakes, therefore, the new virus made the so-called 'species jump', acquiring new receptors that allow it to bind to the cells of the human respiratory system.

Fear and prevention measures in Wuhan, the city of the virus
A sense of anguish pervades Wuhan, a metropolis of China effectively isolated in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus. The authorities have suspended air and rail connections from the city, as well as buses, subways and ferries. The eleven million inhabitants have been told not to leave the city, while among fears of famine, there are those who speak of "the end of the world".

The city of Huanggang is also quarantined
After Wuhan, where the coronavirus at the origin of the pneumonia epidemic that hit China has spread, a second city in the Chinese province of Hubei is also placed in substantial quarantine, to avoid the spread of the infection. The authorities of the city of Huanggang, not far from Wuhan, have called for the stop of public transport and the closure of the meeting places. From midnight today, local time, bus rides will stop, even long distance, and rail, and cinemas and public places dedicated to culture, tourism and entertainment will be closed. The central market of the city closed until date to be established.

Suspicious case in Brazil, prudent government
The coronavirus alert is also triggered in Brazil: yesterday a woman with respiratory problems from China was hospitalized in Belo Horizonte and the authorities of the State of Minas Gerais cataloged him among the suspected cases, despite the federal government having in the meantime excluded the existence of the problem. "No suspected cases of indeterminate pneumonia in Brazil related to the China event have been identified," said the Ministry of Health.

WHO waits for new data before declaring a global emergency
Meanwhile, after a day of talks in Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency committee has announced that it will not yet declare a "global emergency" for the new virus. The director general, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, said that more information is needed on the spread of the infection. The committee of health experts will meet again today.