BEIJING: Leading Chinese health experts said that the new mystery coronavirus in China, which has infected nearly 2,000 people and killed others, is “not as strong as a severe acute respiratory syndrome” (SARS).
The lethal virus has been disturbed by the increasing death toll, which has been disclosed by the same coronavirus family that SARS had killed over 650 people in mainland China and Hong Kong. However, the latest disease was less severe than SARS, though it has more infectious, Chinese officials said in a news conference.
READ MORE: Over 2,000 people infected with coronavirus, 56 killed in China
Gao Fu, the head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press briefing in Beijing “From what we now see this disease is really, not as strong as SARS. It also seems that’ the virus’s spreading potential is gradually improving,” added Ma Xiaowei, Chinese Health Committee Chairman.
Ma Xiaowei further said at the press conference that the new disease also had up to two weeks of incubation and was “contaminating during the incubation time.”
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The new virus first emerged last month in central Chinese city Wuhan, but since then has spread to at least 30 cities in China, thus limiting public transportation and even tourist groups as Chinese authorities have struggled to contain the disease.
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