Millions of people across China were seen heading back to work on February 10th, 2020 after the Lunar New Year break turned into an extended quarantine due to the deadly and never-seen-before outbreak of novel coronavirus (nCoV).

A majority of the professionals will be working from their homes as per the strict quarantine guidelines issued by the Chinese authorities to reduce the chances of transmission.

The death toll in China due to coronavirus epidemic has gone up to 908 and the number of confirmed cases rose to 40,171.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the death toll now exceeds the number of deaths reported from the SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003, which killed 774 people.

An advance team of international experts led by the WHO has left for Beijing to help investigate China’s coronavirus epidemic.

I’ve just been at the airport seeing off members of an advance team for the @WHO-led #2019nCoV international expert mission to #China, led by Dr Bruce Aylward, veteran of past public health emergencies.

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 9, 2020

” In an evolving public health emergency, all countries must step up efforts to prepare for #2019nCoV’s possible arrival and do their utmost to contain it should it arrive. This means lab capacity for rapid diagnosis, contact tracing and other tools in the public health arsenal,” tweeted WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

He added, “In the spirit of scientific solidarity, 400 of the world’s leading experts will gather this week at @WHO HQ Geneva to prioritize work on all the tools we need, including rapid diagnostics, a vaccine & effective treatments.”

In the spirit of human solidarity, I salute the doctors, nurses, caregivers and public #healthworkers on the front lines who, at personal risk, are doing their utmost to stem the #2019nCoV outbreak. They are the true heroes of this outbreak.

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 9, 2020

The WHO is convening a global research and innovation forum to mobilize international action in response to the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The forum, to be held February 11th-12th, 2020 in Geneva, is organized in collaboration with the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness.

On the other hand, 9,452 persons are presently under community surveillance in 32 States/UTs in India. 1,510 samples have been tested and 1,507 samples were found negative except for three samples which had tested positive already from Kerala. As of February 9th, 2020, 1,818 flights and 1,97,192 passengers were screened so far at 21 Airports.

Photo credit: Twitter