Novel coronavirus outbreak
Situation summary
HPSC is closely monitoring an outbreak caused by a novel (new) coronavirus in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. Chinese authorities identified the new coronavirus, which has resulted in several cases of human infections. Other countries have also reported cases with one exported case confirmed in Thailand and another in Japan.
Chinese health authorities posted the full genome of the so-called “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-nCoV” in GenBank, the NIH genetic sequence database, and in the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data portal.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that circulate among animals, including camels, cats and bats, with some causing illness in humans e.g. SARS (civet cats) and MERS (dromedary camels). Rarely, animal coronaviruses can change and infect people and then spread between people such as has been seen with MERS and SARS. Most of the patients in the outbreak in Wuhan, China have reportedly had some link to a large seafood and animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread. Some patients in the outbreak reportedly have not had exposure to animal markets, suggesting that some limited person-to-person spread may be occurring. There are ongoing investigations to learn more. This is a rapidly developing situation and information will be updated as it becomes available.
Common signs of infection include:
- respiratory symptoms i.e. cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties,
- fever,
- in more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.
Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include:
- regular hand washing,
- covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing,
- avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as cough or sneezing
- avoid visiting wet or live markets and contact with animals, excretions and droppings
- thoroughly cooking meat and eggs
- if you are unwell on return from travel to an affected area, contact your healthcare provider and tell them of recent travel.
For more information see the WHO video on novel coronavirus.
WHO has produced guidance for the public, health care professionals, laboratories and for travel to the affected area.
Risk assessment
Outbreaks of novel virus infections among people are always of public health concern. The risk from these outbreaks depends on characteristics of the virus, including whether and how well it spreads between people, the severity of resulting illness, and the medical or other measures available to control the impact of the virus.
Chinese health authorities have reported that most patients in China visited a large seafood and animal market. They additionally report that several hundred health care workers caring for outbreak patients are being monitored and no spread of this virus from patients to health care workers has been found at this time. They report no sustained spread of this virus in the community, but there are indications that some limited person-to-person spread may have occurred. Cases outside China have all occurred in travellers from Wuhan.
There is much more to learn about how the 2019-nCoV virus spreads, severity of associated illness, and other features of the virus. Investigations are ongoing in China, Thailand and Japan. Based on current information, however, the risk from 2019-nCoV importation into EU and Ireland is deemed to be low at this time.
What to expect
Access to the full genetic sequence of 2019-nCoV will help identify infections with this virus going forward. More cases may be identified in the coming days, including more in countries outside China. Given what has occurred previously with MERS and SARS, it’s possible that some limited person-to-person spread will occur.
Other available resources
The following resources are available with current information on the unnamed novel coronavirus: