A SURGE in untraceable clusters of coronavirus patients outside of China has led experts to warn that “containment methods” may not work.
Hot spots are emerging all over the world – including in South Korea, Singapore and Iran – while authorities are having trouble locating the source of each outbreak.
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These new clusters are leading to leaps in cases outside the epicenter in China with the overall death toll now at 2,362.
Experts fear that the virus – which has infected 78,000 people – is spreading too quickly for proven techniques to stop it.
Nonetheless, the World Health Organization (WHO) insisted that the rest of the world had time to prepare for the deadly insect as it spread through Wuhan in the Chinese province of Hubei.
Ian Mackay, a virus expert at the University of Queensland in Australia, says the number of emerging hot spots shows that the virus will turn into a “pandemic”.
He said: “A number of fires located around the world are a sign that things are going on and that what we will have here is probably a pandemic.”
WHO defines a “global pandemic” as a disease that spreads over two continents.
Until recently, the vast majority of deaths were all within China.
Coronavirus spreads easily like a common cold and can be transmitted from person to person even by touching the surfaces.
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Dr Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said the insect is almost certainly spread by people who have only mild symptoms.
He said: “In that case, all these containment methods will not work.
“It’s probably mixed in the cold and flu season all over the place, in multiple countries and went unnoticed until someone gets seriously ill.”
In the meantime, Mackay said the milder symptoms mean “not many people (are) dying” adding “but it’s really bad news if you’re trying to stop a pandemic.”
This happens when the coronavirus killed two people in Italy, blocking 12 cities.
The authorities of the Lombard and Venetian cities have ordered schools, businesses and restaurants as more and more Italians contract the bug killer.
More than 40 people in Italy have been put in solitary confinement and await the test results.
Lombardy has 32 confirmed cases and the authorities in 10 of its cities have ordered the arrest of all non-essential activities and services.
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In Veneto seven cases have been reported, including that of mr. Trevisan deceased.
Prior to Friday, Italy had reported only three cases of viruses that first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
Back in Britain, passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship returned home, with 32 British and European passengers disembarking at a British military base in southwest England.
A British couple who got infected on board the ship now also have pneumonia.
David Abel and wife Sally of Northamptonshire were among the 3,700 people quarantined aboard the cruise ship in Japan after insect cases were found on board two weeks ago.
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They will be quarantined for 14 days at Arrowe Park hospital in north-west England.
Italy was the first euro-zone nation to suspend all direct flights to and from China.
He made the decision after two Chinese tourists from Wuhan tested positive in Rome in late January.
