For the first time in a while, good news has been reported about the coronavirus. The city where the first case of the coronavirus was identified, Wuhan, in China, recently has reached an enormous milestone. Since the outbreak of the virus, a couple a months ago, Wuhan hasn't recorded a new case. The China Health ministry shared this information and hopes that more cities around Chine will soon follow.
Wuhan was one of the first cities in China that had to go into lockdown to prevent further spread of the virus. Thousands of cases have been reported from the city, but now no new cases have been recorded. China is still in lockdown, and 34 cases have been reported around the country. All those new cases are people that have come to China or people that have been coming back home. The majority of those 34 new cases, 24, are people from Beijing, Guangdong has nine cases, Shanghai has two new cases, and Zhejiang and Heilongjiang have one each.
With those 34 new cases around China, the total number of cases has risen to 80,928 and 3,245 deaths. The Chinese Health Ministry has also added that 7,263 people are still suffering from the coronavirus, which 2,314 are in critical condition. More people are being tested every day, and 105 people are suspected of having the virus.
The day has come. For the first time since the outbreak began, authorities record NO new cases in #Wuhan or Hubei, and just 1 domestic transmission. The overall numbers for mainland China are rising though to 34 in total – mainly in #Beijing – all overseas arrivals. pic.twitter.com/idMXBY9Pkl
— Bill Birtles (@billbirtles) March 19, 2020
China was the first country to go under mass lockdown, which is crucial to prevent future transmission. Officials from every city have sent people to clean and disinfect the streets, and even numerous hospitals have been built, especially for patients that have the virus.
Ben Cowling, who is the head of the division of epidemiology and biostatistics, at the University's School of Public Health, in Hong Kong, has said that the measures that China has taken so that the virus could be stopped from spreading have been useful. He has added that although the measures have been effective for the first wave of the virus, they are not effective in the long term. In the future, they may be a second wave, and these kinds of measures will not be sustainable.
Around the world, 218,000 people have been reported to have the coronavirus, and almost 9,000 people have lost their lives to the virus. Dr. Gauden Galea, who is a representative of the World Health Organization in China, has said that the epidemic has been stopped in its early stages, which is proven by the data that has been sent by the countries which were hit first.
This is a lesson that teaches people and experts that outbreaks like this don't need to be at their high peak to be eradicated. Every country that is going through the coronavirus epidemic can learn from China and take the same measures as they did.