How coronavirus spread to the virtually every corner of the world? Here is simple explanation analyzed by New York Times in an article published March 22.
- Coronavirus presumably started at Wuhan seafood market where it transmitted from animal to human
- At first there were 4 cases reported in November 2019
- Those 4 cases soon became nearly 1000 or more by end of December
- Doctors started realizing that sick people had viral pneumonia that did not respond to the usual treatments.
- By the time each patient may have infected 2 or 3 on average.
- China alerted WHO only by December 31 about the virus but also assured that “The disease is preventable and controllable,”.
- Meanwhile travel continued from and to Wuhan
- The came Lunar New Year when millions of people were about to travel back to their hometowns
- On January 1,75,000 people left Wuhan
- For next 3 weeks departure from Wuhan accelerated and almost 7 millions people left Wuhan before travel was banned
- Finally, on January 21 Chinese officials acknowledged the risk of human-to-human transmission
- Two days later on January 23 China locked down Wuhan and travel across China nearly stopped.
- Until now international travel continued as normal
- Soon coronavirus cases were being reported across many countries.
