What is a coronavirus?
Coronavirus is a family of viruses that cause disease in animals. Seven, including the new virus, have made the leap to humans, but most only cause cold symptoms.
Two other coronaviruses, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) are much heavier and have killed more than 1,500 people since 2002.
The new virus, officially named Covid-19, is also dangerous: So far, around 20 percent of confirmed cases have been classified as serious or critical. So far, about 15 to 20 percent of hospital cases have been classified as "severe", and the current mortality rate is between 0.7 and 3.4 percent depending on the location and basic access to good hospital care.
This is much lower than the mortality rate for Mers (30 percent) and Sars (10 percent), but it remains a significant threat.
Chinese scientists believe that Covid-1 has been converted into two strains, one more aggressive than the other, which can make vaccine development more difficult.
How did the outbreak start?
The source of the coronavirus is believed to be a "wet market" in Wuhan, where both dead and live animals, including fish and birds, are soldiers.
Such markets pose an increased risk of virus transmission from animals to humans, as hygiene standards are difficult to maintain when live animals are kept and slaughtered on site. Usually, they are also tightly packed.
The last outbreak from the animal source has yet to be identified, but it is believed that the original host is bats. The bats were not sold on the Wuhan market but may have infected live chickens or other soldier animals there.
Bats are home to a variety of zoonotic viruses, including Ebola, HIV, and rabies.
Could the outbreak grow?
It is impossible to tell in which direction the disease will go, but in its current path, it is likely to spread to more countries and affect many more people. The number of cases is gradually decreasing in China, but increasing in the rest of the world. For more information on what's likely to happen, go to
It is becoming increasingly likely that the Coronavirus outbreak in China in December will become a global pandemic.
The disease is currently spreading rapidly in South Korea, Italy and Iran and is likely to be present in other populous countries in Asia and the Pacific, but has not yet been discovered.
In several countries, including Italy, there is no apparent direct connection to China, which makes the spread of the virus even more difficult.
Critics will say that the authorities have imposed the blockade on Wuhan, that much of central China has failed, and that the World Health Organization (WHO) containment strategy has failed.
However, there is little doubt that China's action has delayed the spread of the virus and given the rest of the world enough time to prepare.
The crucial question now is, if the virus gains ground, whether the NHS and other health authorities around the world have used this time wisely.
These are some of the most important things to expect when Covid-19 goes around the world now.
If the containment is not working, what is the plan?
The following are the limitations that underlie public health response to significant new outbreaks, while containment strategies are aimed at stopping or maintaining an illness. The aim of mitigation is to reduce the impact on society.
The ultimate goal of the mitigation system is to lessen the severity of the epidemic, smooth the outbreak curve, and relieve pressure on the health care system.
And socio-economic wellbeing, "said the deputy director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In layman terms, planners will try to avoid sharp spikes in the number of cases so that the NHS and other services are not overwhelmed.
How dangerous is the virus?
This is still the million-dollar question. In Wuhan, the epicenter of the Covid 19 outbreak, the current mortality rate is between two and four percent, but around 0.7 percent in the rest of China and the world, according to the WHO. If it is as low as the 0.026 percent mortality rate for swine flu in 2009, it should be manageable, even if it spreads across the UK.
But even with the additional time, China's closure has bought, experts are still not sure how serious the disease is or how it should be treated. The virus is more likely to affect older people and people with underlying health conditions. However, a not inconsiderable number of healthy young people have died, which worries doctors around the world.
In a journal of the American Medical Association, doctors in Singapore, in which 89 cases of the disease have been recorded so far, write that the coronavirus occurs similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), although it is much less fatal.
The virus attacks the lungs, with the disease progressing in different phases. Lung CT scans show the opacity of "frosted glass" and then "crazy plaster" patterns when they fill with mucus that makes breathing difficult.
"China's report shows an interesting pattern," said Azra Gani, professor of infectious disease epidemic at Imperial College London. "After the first week of infection, there is a turning point: some patients fall, others remain more stable and recover later." What kills many patients is that their immune systems go into overdrive and cause septic shock. This is the body's inflammatory response to microbial infections and can lead to organ failure and death. Older people and people with underlying diseases are more susceptible, but young people are not immune.
What is different about this disease is that it is a new virus and therefore the entire population is potentially sensitive to everyone. "Everyone is immunologically innocent and nobody was
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