'Wuhan Pneumonia' Human-to-Human Transmission Confirmed... Despite Rapid Spread, China Controls Information

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Park Sun-mi] The fourth death from the so-called 'Wuhan pneumonia' caused by the novel coronavirus has been reported in China, and the number of confirmed infected cases has increased to 218. The World Health Organization (WHO) has convened an emergency committee on the 22nd in response to the seriousness of the situation.

On the 21st, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announced that one more patient infected with the novel coronavirus had died, bringing the total number of deaths to four.

As of 9 a.m. Korea Standard Time on the same day, the total number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in China was 218. According to Chinese authorities, as of 6 p.m. the previous day, there were 198 confirmed cases in Wuhan, 5 in Beijing, and 14 in Guangdong Province, totaling 217 confirmed cases. Including 7 suspected cases in Sichuan Province (2), Yunnan Province (1), Shanghai (2), Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (1), and Shandong Province (1), the total number of confirmed and suspected cases reached 224.

In the early morning of the same day, one suspected case in Shanghai was confirmed, raising the total number of confirmed infected cases to 218. Overseas confirmed cases have also been reported, including one in South Korea, one in Japan, and two in Thailand, totaling four.

In particular, in the Wuhan area, which has the highest number of confirmed infected cases, excluding four deaths and 25 discharged patients, among the 169 patients still under treatment, 35 are in severe condition and 9 are in critical condition, making it impossible to rule out the possibility of additional deaths. Furthermore, the number of suspected cases continues to rise, making an increase in confirmed cases inevitable.

On the same day, the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to hold an emergency committee meeting at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on the 22nd, chaired by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, recognizing the seriousness of the situation.

The WHO is expected to decide whether the novel coronavirus outbreak in China constitutes an international public health emergency. WHO has previously declared international public health emergencies during the 2009 H1N1 influenza, the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the 2016 Zika virus outbreak, and the 2018 Congo Ebola outbreak.

◆Human-to-human transmission confirmed... China rushes to ease tension=This novel coronavirus has officially been confirmed to transmit between humans. On the same day, Guangdong Province health authorities disclosed that two confirmed patients were diagnosed through human-to-human transmission. Although Chinese health authorities initially stated there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of this virus, it is now certain that such transmission is possible.

Inside and outside China, with the Lunar New Year (Chunje) holiday starting on the 24th, a massive movement of Chinese people is expected. However, Chinese health authorities have not transparently disclosed information related to confirmed patients, leading to criticism that there may be gaps in the emergency quarantine response system. It took more than two weeks after 27 cases of pneumonia of unknown cause were reported in Wuhan (December 31 last year) for health authorities to introduce new testing methods and announce a rapid increase in confirmed cases, raising doubts about the reliability of the information provided by China so far.

In response, the Chinese state-run media Global Times explained in an editorial on the 21st, "Like during the 2013 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak and spread, China is suspected of not disclosing all virus-related information in a timely manner," but added, "China avoids speculative announcements that could cause public panic and pursues stable and accurate information delivery. This situation is different from the early days of the SARS outbreak."

Domestically, there is a reassuring atmosphere that this situation is clearly different from SARS and that the authorities have sufficient control.

China Central Television (CCTV) focused its morning news program 'Zhaoyuan Tianxia' aired at 7 a.m. local time on the same day on the national leadership's efforts to prepare countermeasures without detailed disclosure of disease spread information. The top news of the day was not the Wuhan pneumonia issue but President Xi Jinping's visit to a military unit in Yunnan Province.

The state-run Global Times is also concentrating on reports emphasizing that the current 'Wuhan pneumonia' outbreak differs in nature from the SARS outbreak. Through an interview with Wang Yuedan, an immunology professor at Peking University, it was reported that "While the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases is very likely to increase, the risk of a SARS-like outbreak is very low."

Jing Guang, former chief infectious disease expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "Wuhan pneumonia does not have as high a mortality rate among infected patients as SARS, nor does it show signs of infecting many people," adding, "While it took three months and foreign experts to identify the virus during SARS, this time we discovered the novel coronavirus within 10 days on our own. This demonstrates the overall improvement in China's infectious disease response capabilities."

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have publicly issued urgent instructions to control the spread of the disease, but these came after the number of patients in China exceeded 200 and cases began to spread outside China, indicating the situation had already grown significantly. President Xi instructed on the previous day to "firmly suppress the trend of disease spread," and Premier Li chaired a State Council executive meeting to discuss measures against the novel coronavirus infection.