What do we know about Coronavirus so far?

A study examining the earliest 99 cases of the infection points to older males with pre-medical conditions being more susceptible

Just as the Chinese government failed to identify the viral pneumonia threat promptly in December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been dragging its feet on declaring the coronavirus as a global health emergency. With the number of people infected with it continuing to rise — more than 7700 confirmed cases reported in over 20 countries and above 160 fatalities as of yesterday, I wonder what took the global health authorities so long to declare this as a pandemic & global health emergency?

Ironically, I wrote about a study earlier, conducted by the Global Health Security (GHS) Index, which highlighted that the World was not ready to deal with a pandemic. One of the main suggestions of the report was to fill in the preparedness gaps which were lacking in most cases & taking prompt action. Both of these areas leave much to be desired as we can see from the current outbreak.

Known as 2019-nCoV, the spread of the recent wave of this viral infection has been rapid. A recently concluded study encompassing 99 patients admitted with the virus to a local Wuhan hospital has shed some important insights on…