The Johns Hopkins University has built an online dashboard for tracking the spread of Coronavirus outbreak. Use Coronavirus map to track outbreak in real-time.
The coronavirus that has already claimed the lives of 132 people in China with some 7,711 confirmed cases of the disease is fast spreading to different parts of the globe.
To keep track of the spread of the virus, named 2019-nCoV, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University have put forth a map using geographic-information-system with data input from the World Health Organization, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and China’s CDC.
The Coronavirus map keeps updating the total infections, the death toll and recoveries. The map uses red dots to pinpoint the spread in the various countries, the size of the map denoting the intensity. Clicking on the dot shows the exact stats of the disease in the area.
There is another graphic chart that traces the spread of the virus in mainland China versus the world.
No. of people infected could be much higher
So far, 16 countries have reported cases of the coronavirus. These include the US, Australia, Japan, Germany, and India. The latest figures put the number of infected at over 7,711, but the number could be much higher according to experts.
In the US, a total of 110 people are under investigation for the virus. Five of these are confirmed coronavirus cases, 32 have tested negative, and 73 are pending results. The numbers have been gathered from the CDC’s latest updates. Four states California, Michigan, Washington and Arizona have reported cases. CDC has put up a map of the spread of the 2019-nCoV in the world.
This mapping of the spread of coronavirus with data inputs from authorized sources prevents misinformation from spreading and creating panic.
To add to the confusion, China suppressed information about the disease in the initial days. In such cases, timely intervention and prevention, and putting in place better screening measures could have contained the spread. China is preventing its citizens from posting any information on social media channels. At least eight people were arrested in China for “publishing or forwarding false information on the internet without verification” about the coronavirus. Even journalists were being warned of covering the issue.
Coronavirus outbreak has the world on high alert
The virus outbreak began in a seafood and poultry market in the city of Wuhan in China. It has a population of 11 million people. The source of the virus is from animals but scientists have not been able to pinpoint which one. The virus can spread through the air and human contact.
China has stopped all transport facilities within Wuhan, and it is closed off completely. Twelve other cities in Hubei Province have issued travel restrictions, including Huanggang, home to seven million people, and Ezhou, a city of about one million, say reports.
The Lunar New Year holidays are just around the corner which sees hundreds of thousands of Chinese traveling within the country and out too. Keeping that in consideration, road travel has been restricted in Beijing and all inter-province travel has been stopped.
Researchers from Northeastern University and Imperial College claim that the actual number of people infected could be in the vicinity of 25,000 or more, and this number will also definitely change.
They came to this higher figure based on the population of Wuhan and the number of people traveling out of the province and the number of people detected with the virus. Also, there are people still awaiting confirmation on their tests and some who have not even reported the disease.
All governments have put out a travel advisory against traveling to China. The world community is highly concerned as the earlier outbreak of SARs virus in 2003 caused 774 deaths, with nearly 9000 people infected all over the world. The spread was mainly due to travel contamination.
