News on Conoravirus in Boston. Communications & Media Article

Coronavirus
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It is safe to assume that the decade has not started in the best of state with the Coronavirus threatening to become a serious global epidemic. There have been more than 17000 reported cases of the diseases and about 361 people confirmed dead in China as a result. At the time of writing, there have been around 150 cases of the virus reported outside China with one notable death occurring in the Philippines as a result. The United States has taken strict measures in ensuring it tames the virus from spreading. It has declared the virus a public health emergency and consequently denying entry to foreign nationals who had spent their past two weeks in China. However, the virus has still managed to cross over with 11 of the 17000 cases being reported in the United States, 8 of which were confirmed in Boston. So, what is the Corona virus and what do we know so far?
Coronavirus is a new strand of infections that have never been seen before as there are speculations that the virus originates from animals. Chinese scientists have expounded more on this leading them to claim that the virus has originated specifically from bats. This is because some genome sequences from several patients in Wuhan show that the virus exhibit symptoms similar to the viruses that cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.
The symptoms are said to be pneumonia-like and deadly if not treated. The cases in Boston were announced on Saturday with speculations of its origin going around. A Boston student, at the University of Massachusetts, estimated to be in his 20’s landed at Logan International Airport Tuesday with signs of a running nose. Apparently, that was the same day that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that they were going to screen all passengers on flights from China however, it never happened. The man has been quarantined in his Boston home but as a security measure to reduce panic, officials have not released information on how many people have come into contact with him. Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel, MD. MPH, however, has assured the residents by saying, “Massachusetts has been preparing for a possible case of this new coronavirus, and we were fortunate that astute clinicians took appropriate action quickly. Again, the risk to the public from the 2019 novel coronavirus remains low in Massachusetts.” CITATION Bos201 \l 1033 (Boston25News, 2020)
Apart from a running nose, the virus has some symptoms that are similar to other respiratory diseases such as the flu. They include;
* Difficulty in breathing.