Novel Coronavirus cases surpass SARS outbreak, death toll still less

By BBN Staff: The number of cases of the novel coronavirus strain that emerged in Wuhan, China has exceeded the number of cases recorded in the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, but the numbers of deaths are still significantly less.

There were a total of 8,100 reported SARS cases during the eight-month outbreak; however, between the end of December 2019 when the novel coronavirus was first detected and the end of January 2020, there have been almost 10,000 cases, reports the BBC. The number of confirmed deaths from the novel coronavirus stands at 214, with only one of those cases occurring outside of China, while the SARS outbreak claimed a total of 774 lives.

As the outbreak continues, more than 50 million people in China are under quarantine, travel restrictions are being issued from countries all over the world, and countries have begun evacuating their diplomats from China as the situation worsens. The World Health Organization recently declared the coronavirus outbreak a global emergency and even Belize has begun to issue travel advisories as the situation develops.

The novel coronavirus is a part of a family of viruses that are found in animals that made the cross-species jump to humans. The scientists say that the novel coronavirus has a mortality rate of between 2-3 percent and that those who have died from the virus had other conditions prior to contracting it that were contributing factors in their deaths.

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