Write a newspaper report writing on corona virus
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COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), previously known as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), a strain of coronavirus. The first cases were seen in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 before spreading globally 1,2,10. The current outbreak was recognized as a pandemic on 11 March 2020 44.
The non-specific imaging findings are most commonly of atypical or organizing pneumonia, often with a bilateral, peripheral, and basal predominant distribution 32. No effective treatment or vaccine exists currently (March 2020) 20.
Terminology:
The World Health Organization (WHO) originally called this illness "novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia (NCIP)", and the virus itself had been named "2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)" 1.
On 11 February 2020, the WHO officially renamed the clinical condition COVID-19 (a shortening of COronaVIrus Disease-19) 15. Coincidentally, on the same day, the Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses renamed the virus "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2" (SARS-CoV-2) 16,22,46. The names of both the disease and the virus should be fully capitalized, except for the 'o' in the viral name, which is in lowercase 16,22,41.
The official virus name is similar to SARS-CoV, the virus strain that caused epidemic severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2004, potentially causing confusion 38. The WHO has stated it will use "COVID-19 virus" or the "virus that causes COVID-19" instead of its official name, SARS-CoV-2, in dealings with the public 45.
Epidemiology
As of 29 March 2020, over 710,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, having been diagnosed in 175 territories, in six continents according to an online virus tracker created by the medical journal, The Lancet, and hosted by Johns Hopkins University 5,13. There are 11 countries with >10,000 confirmed cases and 31 countries with between 1000 and 10,000 confirmed cases. On 27 March 2020, the USA surpassed China as the country with the most confirmed cases 5.
NB: Surveillance methods and capacity vary dramatically between countries, and there is reason to suspect that there may be a significant number of carriers in some countries not diagnosed.
The R0 (basic reproduction number) of SARS-CoV-2 has been estimated between 2.2 and 3.28 12,33, that is each infected individual, on average, causes between 2-3 new infections.
The incubation period for COVID-19 was initially calculated to be ~5 days, which was based on 10 patients only 12. An American group performed an epidemiological analysis of 181 cases, for which days of exposure and symptom onset could be estimated accurately. They calculated a median incubation period of 5.1 days, that 97.5% became symptomatic within 11.5 days (CI, 8.2 to 15.6 days) of being infected, and that extending the cohort to the 99th percentile results in almost all cases developing symptoms in 14 days after exposure to SARS-CoV-2 92.
The number of deaths from COVID-19 is over 33,500 (29 March), with a case fatality rate of 2-3% 5,93. It is speculated that the true case fatality rate is lower than this because many mild cases are not being tested, which thus skews the apparent death rate upwards 93.
A paper published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) analyzed all 44,672 cases diagnosed up to 11 February 2020. Of these, 1.2% were asymptomatic, and 80.9% were classed as "mild" 25.
Another study looked at clinical characteristics in COVID-19 positively tested closed contacts of COVID-19 patients 81. Approximately 30% of those COVID-19 positive close contacts never developed any symptoms or changes on chest CT scans. The remainder showed changes on CT, but ~20% reportedly developed symptoms during their hospital course, none of them developed severe disease 81. This suggests that a high percentage of COVID-19 carriers are asymptomatic.
In the Chinese population, 55-60%% of COVID-19 patients were male; the median age has been reported between 47 and 59 years 12,93.
The non-specific imaging findings are most commonly of atypical or organizing pneumonia, often with a bilateral, peripheral, and basal predominant distribution 32. No effective treatment or vaccine exists currently (March 2020) 20.
Terminology:
The World Health Organization (WHO) originally called this illness "novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia (NCIP)", and the virus itself had been named "2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)" 1.
On 11 February 2020, the WHO officially renamed the clinical condition COVID-19 (a shortening of COronaVIrus Disease-19) 15. Coincidentally, on the same day, the Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses renamed the virus "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2" (SARS-CoV-2) 16,22,46. The names of both the disease and the virus should be fully capitalized, except for the 'o' in the viral name, which is in lowercase 16,22,41.
The official virus name is similar to SARS-CoV, the virus strain that caused epidemic severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2004, potentially causing confusion 38. The WHO has stated it will use "COVID-19 virus" or the "virus that causes COVID-19" instead of its official name, SARS-CoV-2, in dealings with the public 45.
Epidemiology
As of 29 March 2020, over 710,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, having been diagnosed in 175 territories, in six continents according to an online virus tracker created by the medical journal, The Lancet, and hosted by Johns Hopkins University 5,13. There are 11 countries with >10,000 confirmed cases and 31 countries with between 1000 and 10,000 confirmed cases. On 27 March 2020, the USA surpassed China as the country with the most confirmed cases 5.
NB: Surveillance methods and capacity vary dramatically between countries, and there is reason to suspect that there may be a significant number of carriers in some countries not diagnosed.
The R0 (basic reproduction number) of SARS-CoV-2 has been estimated between 2.2 and 3.28 12,33, that is each infected individual, on average, causes between 2-3 new infections.
The incubation period for COVID-19 was initially calculated to be ~5 days, which was based on 10 patients only 12. An American group performed an epidemiological analysis of 181 cases, for which days of exposure and symptom onset could be estimated accurately. They calculated a median incubation period of 5.1 days, that 97.5% became symptomatic within 11.5 days (CI, 8.2 to 15.6 days) of being infected, and that extending the cohort to the 99th percentile results in almost all cases developing symptoms in 14 days after exposure to SARS-CoV-2 92.
The number of deaths from COVID-19 is over 33,500 (29 March), with a case fatality rate of 2-3% 5,93. It is speculated that the true case fatality rate is lower than this because many mild cases are not being tested, which thus skews the apparent death rate upwards 93.
A paper published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) analyzed all 44,672 cases diagnosed up to 11 February 2020. Of these, 1.2% were asymptomatic, and 80.9% were classed as "mild" 25.
Another study looked at clinical characteristics in COVID-19 positively tested closed contacts of COVID-19 patients 81. Approximately 30% of those COVID-19 positive close contacts never developed any symptoms or changes on chest CT scans. The remainder showed changes on CT, but ~20% reportedly developed symptoms during their hospital course, none of them developed severe disease 81. This suggests that a high percentage of COVID-19 carriers are asymptomatic.
In the Chinese population, 55-60%% of COVID-19 patients were male; the median age has been reported between 47 and 59 years 12,93.
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