The Wuhan coronavirus has sickened more than 14,500 people in Asia, according to statements from health officials. Many other cases are suspected but not confirmed. As of Sunday morning, at least 305 people have died, all but one in China.
As these maps show, the disease has been detected in at least 23 other countries, most involving people who traveled from China.
4 CANADA
8 UNITED STATES
6 FRANCE
8 GERMANY
14,300+CHINA
18 SINGAPORE
12 AUSTRALIA
2 ITALY
2 BRITAIN
2 RUSSIA
1 SPAIN
1 SWEDEN
Eight cases have been confirmed in the United States, including a 35-year-old man in Washington state, a couple in their 60s in Chicago and three people in California.
1 Washington
3 California
1 Arizona
2 Illinois
1 Massachusetts
UNITED STATES
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The outbreak began in a seafood and poultry market in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in central China. But which animal is the source of the virus and how many people are at risk remain unclear. The virus can spread from person to person, but it is not known how easily.
Follow the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak.
What’s being done to contain the outbreak?
The Chinese authorities took the extraordinary step of closing off Wuhan, canceling planes and trains leaving the city and suspending buses, subways and ferries within it. By Jan. 24, at least 12 other cities in Hubei Province had issued travel restrictions, including Huanggang, home to seven million people, and Ezhou, a city of about one million.
Source: OpenStreetMap
The restrictions on trains and other forms of public transportation come just before the Lunar New Year holiday, when hundreds of millions of people travel around and out of the country.
The restrictions also began spreading beyond Hubei. On Jan. 25, the Beijing city government announced that it would suspend all inter-province buses, effectively limiting road travel into the capital.
How big could the outbreak be?
Researchers at Northeastern University and Imperial College London estimate that the number of cases may be five or ten times higher than what has been reported. Thousands of suspected cases are yet to be confirmed with tests, and others with the virus may not have sought medical attention.
On Jan. 27, the Northeastern researchers estimated there may be around 25,000 cases. The estimates will change as more cases are reported and more information about the virus becomes known.
Estimated number of coronavirus cases
Estimates say there may be about 25,000 cases of the virus in Wuhan.
More likely
0
10k
20k
30k
40k
Number of cases
Source: Northeastern University’s Laboratory for the Modeling of Biological and Socio-technical Systems. Estimates as of Jan. 27.
These estimates are based on an analysis of the population of Wuhan, the number of cases detected outside of China and the number of people who travel from Wuhan to other areas. Public health officials still do not know how the disease is transmitted, and experts urged caution in interpreting the estimates.
“These are very early models that make several assumptions based on what evidence is available,” said David Heymann, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “They aren’t truth — they’re just one step in trying to better understand this outbreak.”
