Wuhan Virus Watch: Cornell Student Under Quarantine for Possible Coronavirus Infection

Wuhan Virus Watch: Cornell Student Under Quarantine for Possible Coronavirus Infection

As of Wednesday morning, the world has over 25,500 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus reported from 28 countries and administrative states, with 492 deaths.

Reports say 3,223 of those patients are in critical condition and 907 confirmed recoveries.

***We will update this post with new information.

Cornell University Student Suspected of Having Coronavirus Infection

A student from Cornell University is showing symptoms of infection with the Wuhan coronavirus, according to campus officials.

He or she is currently in isolation in off-campus housing, and samples have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Results from the test are expected to return within a week and, if confirmed, the student would be New York’s first case of the SARS-like infection.

‘Cornell is working in concert with the Tompkins County Health Department (TCHD) to monitor and support the health and safety of the individual and the broader community,’ Cornell officials wrote in a statement.

‘A contact investigation is underway through TCHD. Anyone who has had close contact, as defined by the CDC, with the individual will be contacted by TCHD.’

It is not known how the student contracted the infection. The number of American cases of coronavirus infection still stands at 11.

FDA gives emergency green light for the CDC’s coronavirus test to be used in more labs

The US Food and Drug Administration has extended the use of a coronavirus detection tool to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-qualified laboratories across the country.

The authorization was until recently limited to CDC laboratories, of which the agency’s site says there are some 200 nationwide.

…Under the emergency use authorization, the 2019-nCoV Real-Time RT-PCR diagnostic panel can be used in patients who meet the CDC criteria for coronavirus testing.

The move is meant to speed diagnosis and containment of coronavirus patients to control its spread in the US, but without a specific number of authorized labs, it’s unclear how much the authorization will do to expedite the process.

The number of coronavirus cases may be much higher than reported

Part of the reason for the FDA’s move is to allow public health officials to get a better handle on the actual number of infections. Since the virus mimics the flu in its symptoms, as well as indications that the Chinese have not been forthcoming with critical information, the extent of the outbreak and the speed of its spread is difficult to determine.

In fact, a Wuhan medic says patients are dying before they can even be tested for the virus.

Hospital worker Jeisi Luo, not his real name, also made the shocking claim that there are far more cases than official figures suggest, because the waiting list for diagnosis is too long.

Official figures from China claim there are 24,000 cases in the country, with 13,522 of these recorded in the virus epicentre and surrounding Hubei province, although the actual figure is suspected to be higher.

Mr Luo warned that the problem lies in an inability to carry out enough nucleic acid tests (NAT), which diagnose the virus.

‘When preliminary tests determine that a patient has a lung sickness, the nucleic acid test which detects the virus, cannot always be carried out because the waiting list is too long,’ he told DW. ‘The patient is therefore not diagnosed.’

He said medics were dealing with this crisis by ‘prescribing medicine’ and sending patients home to ‘self-isolate’.

‘The waiting rooms are full of people coughing,’ he said. ‘Healthy people who have to wait in these conditions risk infection.’

The outbreak is so bad that even North Korea is extending help to China

How bad is the situation in China?

This bad:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has offered his support in a letter to President Xi Jinping over China’s efforts to stop the spread of a new strain of coronavirus that has killed 213 Chinese people and infected nearly 10,000.

Kim “conveyed his sincere feelings of wanting to share the suffering and trial of the fraternal Chinese people and to render help even a bit,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday of Kim’s letter to Xi.

Kim also conveyed “militant greetings” to Xi as he expressed the conviction that China would emerge victorious in its campaign to combat the deadly virus.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.