Coronavirus: What you need to know about the public health emergency

Coronavirus, a respiratory illness, was declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Jan. 30.

With symptoms including a fever, cough, headache, sore throat and shortness of breath, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), coronavirus has been reported to have left people mildly sick to life-threateningly ill.

Originating in December in Wuhan, China — which is now under lockdown — coronavirus has now reached every territory and province in China and spread to 20 other countries so far, including the U.S. Currently, there are a reported 213 deaths (all in China) and 9,800 cases according to The New York Times, although the numbers are rising.

With six reported cases of Coronavirus in the US, another possible case is being investigated in Lawrence, KS by the Lawrence Memorial Hospital. A patient who had recently traveled to Wuhan City, China was admitted after experiencing respiratory illness symptoms. The patient was placed this week in an isolation room made for infection prevention, according to Fox 4. However, the case has not been confirmed as coronavirus and is still awaiting test results that take a number of days.With the reports of a possible outbreak just 45 minutes from East, the closeness of the situation is alarming to some students, including junior Emmett Liljegren.

“That was a little spooky because it seemed so far away, like Ebola when it was in the Dominican Republic, but then when it comes here it feels a lot more real,” Liljegren said.

The first US person-to-person transmission of coronavirus was reported in Chicago, spreading from a woman who had recently traveled to Wuhan to her husband. Although this played a large role in the determination by WHO of Coronavirus as a public health emergency, according to Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, it was an isolated instance between two very close contacts and won’t spread to the wider community.

The person-to-person transmissions are thought to have spread through respiratory droplets through things like coughing and sneezing according to CDC.

Senior Lotus West believes people in the US shouldn’t be as focused on the coronavirus and should shift their attention to the Influenza outbreak.

“I feel like people should be more focused on influenza — it’s killed like 8,600 people last time I checked this year in America,” West said. “I don’t think they’re overreacting, but currently in our country there’s a bigger problem with Influenza, just statistically.”

CDC estimates that Influenza has resulted in over 15 million cases, 140,000 hospitalizations and 8,200 deaths within the 2019-2020 flu season. The symptoms of influenza and coronavirus are similar, according to Yale New Haven Health, so hospitals are recommending people experiencing symptoms who have recently been to China to be checked out. 

Regardless of comparison to other viruses, coronavirus is continuing to rise in the number of cases reported and deaths in China as well as countries all over the world.