China’s ‘demon’ virus leaves health experts at odds on when infection rate will slow
- Zhong Nanshan, the man who fought Sars, says wave of infections will slow in early February; public health expert in Hong Kong disagrees
- Dean of Hong Kong University’s medical school says outbreak to peak in April or May
Chinese President Xi Jinping called the pneumonia-like virus that has ravaged the city of Wuhan a “demon” that must be defeated, but some of the world’s leading infectious disease experts cannot agree on how long it will take to bring it under control.
One of China’s top experts said the Wuhan coronavirus infection rate could peak in early February.
“I estimate that it will reach its peak in around the next week or 10 days, after that there will be no more major increases,” said Zhong Nanshan, the respiratory disease scientist who played the pivotal role in China’s fight against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) coronavirus epidemic in 2002-03.
He is also leading a team of experts to tackle the present outbreak and made the comments in an interview with state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.
A total of 5,974 people are now confirmed to have contracted the current infection in mainland China, the health authorities said on Wednesday. That means the Wuhan-centered outbreak has now surpassed Sars, which infected 5,327 people in the mainland. Sars then went on to kill 813 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
