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Qatar tribune
China’s health commission said on Monday (Jan 20)  that medical workers have been infected by the deadly coronavirus first discovered in the central city of Wuhan, confirming it can be transmitted between people.
“The current situation is that it is no longer animal to human transmission, but human to human,” said Chinese pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan, who discovered the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) coronavirus in 2003 and now heads an expert panel under the health commission.
He cited a case in Guangdong, where the patient had not been to Wuhan but caught the virus from a family member. Dr Zhong also said 14 medical personnel helping with coronavirus patients have been infected by one carrier.
"The key to controlling the spread of the disease now is to prevent a super-spreader from emerging,” Dr Zhong, director of the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, said.
Another member of the expert panel, virologist Gao Fu, said: “The virus is changing. The virus is adapting to the environment and adapting to humans.”
The expert panel warned that the number of infections will increase with the Chinese New Year mass migration.
The Wuhan virus that has killed three people so far has spread to China's financial hub Shanghai with more cases reported elsewhere in the country.
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20/01/2020
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