By now, China coronavirus has closed down a city 11 million people, spread to 27 countries/ regions, and infected more than 17, 000 people (surpassing SARS).
It started with something simple – someone buying food for dinner at an outdoor market. And by now it has been declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization.
Like SARS, 2019-nCoV is a zoonotic disease that passes from animals to humans. Research indicates that both SARS and the novel coronavirus likely originated in bats and jumped to humans.
Over the last 50 years, 10 such infectious diseases have jumped from animals to people and so far the coronavirus has the lowest fatality rate. Here’s a comparison between the novel coronavirus and the other major outbreaks over the last 50 years.
