Erster Fall von Coronavirus in den USA

The number of people infected with the coronavirus is increasing rapidly. WHO advises in a crisis meeting. The most important background to the lung disease.
The outbreak of a corona virus in China is spreading. The new lung disease in China has killed two more patients. The health authority of the central Chinese metropolis Wuhan announced on Tuesday. Six deaths have now been confirmed since the outbreak in December.

The number of infected people also increased significantly. There are now 308 confirmed cases in China, state television reported. Among these, 270 infections are in the Hubei province with the metropolis of Wuhan alone, where the new virus had started.

The new corona virus was found in 14 patients in the southern province of Guangdong. There are six cases in Shanghai and five in Beijing. There are also five infections each in Zhejiang Province and Chongqing Metropolis. Two were reported from Tianjin City, one from Henan Province.

A total of five cases were reported from Thailand, Japan and South Korea, all as far as known for people who had been in Wuhan. Health officials in Taiwan reported an illness for the first time on Tuesday.

An approximately 50-year-old Taiwanese woman who worked in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and flew back to Taiwan from there was affected. According to Tuesday's announcement, the woman was taken to a hospital and quarantined immediately upon arrival.

A case of the new lung disease was also detected for the first time in the USA. It was a man who returned to the west coast metropolis of Seattle after a trip to the Chinese province of Wuhan on January 15, the CDC said on Tuesday. The man had noticed no symptoms on the return trip, it was said. He was in good condition in the hospital. There is only a very small risk that he could infect other people.

However, international experts have expressed doubts as to whether the published figures correspond to reality. The first experts warn that virus will also come to Europe and Germany. The most important questions and answers about the Wuhan virus at a glance:

Which pathogens are involved?
The virus, previously called “2019-nCoV” by the World Health Organization, belongs to the corona virus family, like Sars and Mers, which occasionally occurs in the Middle East. It affects the upper and lower airways and can cause pneumonia. So far, patients come from almost all age groups, men and women are affected approximately equally often. Many normal colds are also caused by - but different - corona viruses, which usually only affect the upper respiratory tract.