Photos that show how the coronavirus has left Asia's biggest tourist attractions
Coronavirus
What is a coronavirus?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the coronaviruses are a family of viruses. This virus causes an illness that may range from the common cold to severe diseases like the SARS and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
The coronaviruses had originally been transmitted between the animals and the people. On the other hand, the SARS was transmitted from the civet cats to the humans and MERS is believed to have been transmitted from a type of camel to the humans. We have known that there is a presence of several known coronaviruses that are found circulating within the animals but have not yet infected the humans.
The name coronavirus has been derived from the Latin word corona, which means crown or halo. When we look under an electron microscope, we can see that the image of the virus is reminding us of a solar corona.
A novel coronavirus was identified by the Chinese authorities on 7th January 2020. It has been named as 2019-nCoV. The authorities had reported that this is a new strain that had not been identified in humans recently. Not much is known about this virus even though the human-to-human transmission has been confirmed.
What are the coronavirus symptoms?
According to the WHO, the symptoms of coronavirus infection include a fever, cough, shortness of breath and difficulties in breathing.
In the more severe cases, the coronavirus can lead to pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and death.
The incubation period for the same is not known. Some say that it could be between 10 to 14 days.
Some may even say that this may not be as deadly as the other severe types of coronavirus like SARS, which has ended up killing more than 800 people all across the world with over 300 people in China alone. This outbreak had occurred during 2002-03 which had also originated in China.
MERS was a more deadly form of the outbreak which had not been very widespread but ended up killing one-third of those infected with it. In China, the infection is more widespread than SARS.
