• Mysterious coronavirus identified by China in record time as cause of pneumonia outbreak
• Passengers at 3 major US airports to be screened for deadly Chinese virus
• Second patient dies from 'novel' coronavirus in China, 1 confirmed case in Japan, fears outbreak may have spread further

Health officials in Wuhan, China have revealed that 136 new cases of a mysterious new strain of the coronavirus have been diagnosed over just two days, bringing the total in the city to 198.

In a statement detailing the latest escalation in figures for the major viral outbreak, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said a third person has died from the illness, while two more are in critical condition. A further 33 cases among the newly diagnosed patients are classified as "severe." All of the patients are being kept in isolation.

"The first symptoms were mostly fever, cough or chest tightness, and shortness of breath," the agency said, advising anyone coughing or sneezing to wear a face mask to prevent the spread of germs.

"Pay close attention to symptoms such as fever and cough," they added. "Seek immediate medical attention when such symptoms occur."

Health officials said they've been carrying out medical observations on hundreds of people who came into close contact with those diagnosed to date, and no human-to-human transmission has been found. So far, the outbreak appears to be centered on Wuhan, but a small number of cases have been reported outside of China - two in Thailand and one in Japan.

Infectious disease experts at Imperial College London have calculated that the number of cases in Wuhan alone is approaching 1,700.

The World Health Organization (WHO) held off designating a new fast-spreading coronavirus as an international health threat, but did deem it a crisis within China, where the pathogen has infected some 830 people and killed 26.

After two days of meetings, WHO determined it was a "bit too early" to label the outbreak an international health emergency on Thursday at a conference in Geneva, despite the rapidly rising disease toll.

"Make no mistake, though, this is an emergency in China," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding: "It has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one."

China's National Health Commission updated the latest figures on the virus' impact across the country on the heels of the WHO decision, confirming a total of 830 infections and 26 fatalities, with an additional 8,420 "close contacts."

The virus has traveled well beyond its epicenter in Wuhan - a city of 11 million and a major transport hub - claiming its first life outside its point of origin earlier this week. Wuhan itself was locked down on Wednesday, with all travel in and out of the city shut down indefinitely as health officials scramble to contain the outbreak.

A second US case of the deadly pneumonia-like coronavirus has been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A Chinese woman in her 60s has presented with the illness in Chicago.

The woman flew to Chicago on January 13 from Wuhan, believed to be the source of the outbreak that has so far killed some 26 people and infected at least 800 more. She has had "limited close contacts" since arriving in the city and was not believed to be sick while traveling, the CDC said at a press conference on Friday, adding that she was being kept in isolation at a city hospital.

Another 63 people in 22 states are being investigated as possible coronavirus patients. The first US case was announced on Tuesday in Snohomish County, Washington - a man who returned from Wuhan earlier this month and was hospitalized with pneumonia that turned out to be the virus. Major airports have stepped up screenings in the hope of preventing further spread of the disease.

The two suspected Minnesota cases involve travelers who had visited Wuhan recently. Both have received medical attention but did not need to be hospitalized. They are isolated at home while state health officials await test results from the CDC and reach out to people with whom they have been in contact, said Kris Ehresmann, infectious disease program director for the state health department.

"We've identified their contacts, and so we're beginning to follow up with those individuals to see if they have symptoms of illness and to limit their activities" as needed, she said.

At the University of Minnesota, spring semester began Tuesday, with more than 2,200 Chinese international students recently returned from China. While the U said it will work closely with the state health department to monitor any developments, it stressed that there are no confirmed coronavirus cases on any of its campuses, according to a public health alert.

Fast food chain McDonald's has announced it will halt operations in five cities in China's Hubei province, where the new deadly coronavirus is believed to originate. The suspension comes into effect on Friday.

The restaurant chain has dozens of locations in the region, including in the city of Wuhan, which is considered to be the epicenter of the virus.

Apart from Wuhan, where most infections have occurred, McDonalds will close restaurants in Ezhou, Huanggang, Qianjing and Xiantao. The company says that the temporary measure is introduced for "for employee and customer health and safety."

In a statement to RT, McDonald's said that its restaurants operate normally in cities where public transportation is available, unlike the five cities in Hubei province.

The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission has confirmed that a patient infected with the deadly coronavirus has, for the first time since the outbreak, been cured and discharged from hospital.

After six days, the patient, a 56-year-old woman identified only as Chen, showed a significant improvement in her respiratory symptoms. Two independent blood tests for the coronavirus came back negative, as did pulmonary CT scans, according to the state-owned Beijing Daily newspaper.

The patient was then released from quarantine following a further examination by experts deployed to tackle the disease.

Chen reportedly lived in Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak, for many years. She developed fever and fatigue on January 10 and was hospitalized in Shanghai on January 12.

US President Donald Trump has commended his Chinese counterpart for his country's quick response to a rapidly moving coronavirus outbreak, as additional cases of the illness were confirmed in Europe, Australia and the US.

The fatality count jumped by another 15, to 41 in total by Saturday, with most of the deaths involving elderly patients with pre-existing conditions, all of them in China. The quickly climbing disease toll stands at nearly 1,300 cases nationwide, according to Chinese health officials.

With the second infection confirmed in the US, one in Australia and three more in France, President Trump extended gratitude to Xi Jinping for Beijing's aggressive efforts to contain the new coronavirus - dubbed 2019-nCoV - which include tight travel restrictions for some 20 million citizens across 13 Chinese cities.

A 62-year-old doctor helping to beat back a fast-moving coronavirus in China, Liang Wudong, has died of the illness while working at its epicenter in the city of Wuhan, Chinese state media has reported.

The fatality comes as Beijing scrambles to contain the deadly outbreak - which has so far taken some 41 lives in China and infected over 1,300 worldwide - with hundreds of doctors and other healthcare workers calling off their New Year celebrations to race to the virus' point of origin in Wuhan.

A group of 135 medical workers from Guangdong Province penned an open letter earlier this week explaining their motives for running directly into danger, stating "the responsibility of safeguarding our people falls to no others but us."

"We have the experience, and we are ready to go to the front line. When duty calls, we will answer it, and answer it with victory."

Overworked staff in Wuhan have been on around-the-clock shifts, with some doctors seen collapsing from exhaustion amid the aggressive containment effort. Quickly running out of desperately needed supplies - such as surgical masks, scrubs and protective goggles - hospitals across the city have reportedly been relying on public donations between resupplies.

The death toll from the 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak in China has reached 56, with hundreds of new infections detected nationwide, despite all containment efforts. A handful of news cases have also been reported outside China.

The first death was reported in Shanghai, and another one in Henan Province, while 13 more people died in Hubei Province - the epicenter of the outbreak - where nearly 130 people were reportedly in serious or critical condition as of Sunday morning. In addition to hundreds of known and confirmed cases, some 7,000 people there remain under increased medical supervision due to their potentially dangerous "close contacts."

Meanwhile, the number of those who have beaten the virus and were discharged from hospitals has increased to at least 85, according to authorities.

China is facing a "grave situation" as the new coronavirus is "accelerating its spread," President Xi Jinping warned earlier. He added, however, that given the immense efforts to contain the outbreak, China "will definitely be able to win the battle."

Around 450 Chinese military medics, many with experience in combating SARS or Ebola, were deployed in the region to help the overworked and exhausted hospital staff, who had been on around-the-clock shifts in recent weeks. Meanwhile, local authorities are rushing to construct a new 1,000-bed facility specifically to treat victims of the deadly virus.

The death toll from the 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak in China has reached 80, with hundreds of new infections detected. Meanwhile, US public health officials have confirmed new cases of the disease in Los Angeles and Arizona.

With 24 new deaths reported in Hubei Province - the epicenter of the outbreak - the overall toll from the novel coronavirus in China now stands at 80, with nearly 2,800 confirmed cases countrywide.

China has also revealed that the virus can spread before any symptoms show. The country's Health Minister Ma Xiaowei confirmed the bad news on Sunday, which has panicked some US doctors.

Dr William Schaffner, an adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the news a "game changer" and said it means the virus is "more contagious than we originally thought."

Each of the five US cases involve people who had traveled to Wuhan, China, recently. They are being treated and are currently in stable condition. The most recent victim is a member of the Arizona Student University, according to the Arizona Department of Health. The victim is not currently "severely ill."

Though there are only five confirmed cases in the US, the CDC said they have "just over 100" people being investigated for the disease and they expect that number to go up.

The head of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) believes a global epidemic will be on the cards by March if the new Chinese coronavirus continues to spread at its current rate.

"The disease is quite dangerous and the number of cases grows exponentially. If it continues for another month, it can grow into a global epidemic," Aleksandr Sergeev told journalists on Monday. In his view, the World Health Organization (WHO) needs to do more.

On the plus side, there are about 30 medicines that can treat the infection, according to Russia's former chief federal sanitary inspector, Dr Gennady Onishchenko.

"In order to reassure everyone: There are about 30 drugs that are available today, and are being used, [which can] work against this virus. Twelve of them are ones we [also use to] treat HIV infection," Onishchenko, who is now an MP in the national parliament (Duma), told the radio station Echo of Moscow.

According to Russian authorities, no cases of the new 2019-nCov virus have been found so far, but they have been reported in Chinese regions bordering the country.

US stocks tumbled on Monday from the opening bell on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging over 400 points. The S&P 500 slid 1.5 percent while the Nasdaq-100 futures falling 2.1 percent.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 2.2 percent in its trading session and is headed for its worst decline since October. UK's FTSE, Germany's DAX and France's CAC are down more than two percent.

While most stock markets in Asia were closed for the Chinese Lunar New Year, bourses that traded on Monday were in the red. Japan's Nikkei dropped by more than two percent and India's Mumbai Sensex finished trading over one percent lower.

China's yuan tumbled more than half a percentage point to hit a three-week low. The Australian dollar, which is heavily exposed to the performance of China's economy, dropped 0.5 percent to its lowest since December 2. The New Zealand dollar also lost 0.5 percent. The Japanese yen, which is frequently viewed as a safe haven, rose to as high as ¥108.73 per dollar, before giving up most of the day's gains.

"Putting the human tragedy aside, from a cold markets perspective the coronavirus might serve the purpose of taking some of the heat out of a market that has been rising rapidly for months," said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group, in a note to clients seen by the MarketWatch.

China's northern neighbor Mongolia has decided to close border crossings and all universities across the country, in a bid to stop the rapid spread of the previously-unknown coronavirus that has killed more than 80 people.

All border crossings with China will remain closed for vehicles and pedestrians from Monday until March 2, the state-run Montsame News Agency reported, citing a government meeting. No restrictions were placed on railways and air travel.

All universities, vocational training centers and the popular Nairamdal international youth camp will also be closed during this time period.

The government of the landlocked country to China's north had earlier shut down schools and kindergartens in its effort to contain the spread of the virus. Officials are currently working to repatriate 31 students from Wuhan, the central Chinese city hit hardest by the outbreak. There have not been any confirmed cases of coronavirus in Mongolia so far.

On Monday, Germany became the latest in a growing list of countries to enact evacuation plans for its citizens in the virus-hit city of Wuhan, but could they end up bringing the virus back instead?

The German Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas made the announcement on Monday, saying: "We are now also considering a possible evacuation of all Germans who are willing to leave." The plan will involve a team from the embassy in Beijing making their way to the virus-ravaged city of Wuhan, where there are thought to be around 90 Germans. There, they will provide assistance to their citizens, and offer them the chance to return home if they so wish.

Berlin joins a growing list of countries to declare its intention to pull its citizens out of Wuhan. On Monday, Thailand also considered an evacuation, as have Jordan, Australia, and the US.

Making the problem worse?

But as Chinese officials revealed on Sunday, the virus is spreading with no visible symptoms. With this in mind, are these countries' plans to bring back citizens wise? Or do they risk outbreaks at home to rival that in China, where upward of 80 people have now died?

Apparently, there are no indications that the Germans in Wuhan are infected with the coronavirus. Nevertheless, if any of them do return to Europe, it would be advisable to keep them quarantined until blood tests can confirm they are not infected. Even this is an imperfect science, as a single virus cell can lie dormant in a person for a long time before multiplying and attacking. Western countries reaction to the virus so far could be seen as being impractical.

[...]

One way ticket for the virus?

Since the city of Wuhan has been virtually quarantined by China, can it really be wise for other countries to be swooping in and retrieving their own citizens, regardless of how good their preparations are? While countries owe their citizens a certain amount of help amidst natural disasters such as this, guaranteeing that the virus will not enter a country could require a blanket travel ban, and probably a temporary embargo on food products as well.

The US has urged citizens to "reconsider" traveling to China in the State Department's newest advisory, amid the ongoing deadly coronavirus outbreak as another person fell victim to the disease in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

The travel advisory warns Americans about an "increased risk" of infection and explicitly calls on them not to travel to the Hubei province - the source of the outbreak that was essentially quarantined by the Chinese authorities. It also said that all non-emergency US personnel and their family members were ordered to leave the troubled province last week, thus confirming earlier media reports.

Further advice to those who would still travel to China despite the warnings includes such recommendations as avoiding contact with sick people as well as any animals, animal markets, and animal products such as uncooked meat.

The advisory comes as China's capital of Beijing confirmed its first death from the deadly respiratory disease, caused by the novel coronavirus named 2019-nCoV, bringing the total death toll in the country to 82. Hundreds of new infections are also confirmed every day and the number of cases confirmed countrywide has surpassed 2,800.

The death toll from China's coronavirus outbreak has risen to 106, with the authorities in Hubei province, at the heart of the crisis, saying on Tuesday it killed 24 more people. Over 4,500 cases have been confirmed nationwide.

The death toll from the respiratory disease, caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), climbed to double digits on Tuesday. The health commission in the Hubei province, where it originated, confirmed that 100 people have died from the deadly virus, which brings the total number of deaths within China to at least 106. The majority of the new lethal cases, 24, were reported in Hubei province, while one patient died in the Chinese capital, Beijing.

A mind-boggling 1,771 new cases have been confirmed, driving the total number of those infected nationwide to at least 4,515 as of Tuesday.

The rapid spread of the virus prompted Beijing to extend its New Year holidays to February 2, while China's National Immigration Administration called on residents to refrain from travelling abroad to curb the spread of the disease, which has already spilled over to at least 15 countries, including the US, Canada, and Germany, which reported its first confirmed case on Tuesday.

Although China has put over a dozen cities at the center of the outbreak, including Wuhan, where it is believed to have originated, on lockdown, concerns over its spread are mounting. The US State Department updated its travel advisory on Monday, explicitly urging Americans to avoid travelling to Hubei, an example that was swiftly followed by Canada.

The State Department also said it would be extracting US consulate personal from Wuhan on Wednesday morning. The charter plane would be sent to bring back the staffers and other US citizens "at greater risk from coronavirus" that are stranded in Wuhan. A State Department spokesman noted, however, that the capacity to airlift those willing was "extremely limited." Speaking to CBS, they said that about 1,000 Americans are currently in the city.

Japan's Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Katsunobu Kato said, as cited by the Kyodo News agency, that two new cases of the coronavirus infection had been detected in Japan.

Japan has registered the first case of the new deadly coronavirus in a person who had no record of travelling to China, Japanese media reported on Tuesday, citing the country's Health Ministry.

One case was a bus driver, a Japanese man in his 60s, who had no history of staying in China, the outlet said. He drove, twice in January, Chinese tourists, who had come to Japan from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus.

According to the news agency, the bus driver was diagnosed with pneumonia on 25 January and is currently hospitalised at a medical institution in the country's western Nara Prefecture. If confirmed, this is the first case of human-to-human transmission in Japan.

The second new case in Japan is a Wuhan resident in his 40s, who has been traveling across Japan since January 20. He was also diagnosed with pneumonia, the agency added.

As of now, a total of six people have been infected with coronavirus in Japan.

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A version of this piece was originally published online by Psychology Today, but it was taken down within 24 hours. You can read a longer version on Medium.

Brexistential fear: An irrational fear that Brexit will lead to the end of the world as we know it.

Epistemological impugnment: A form of intellectual bullying that involves declaring or implying that a claim should not be believed, not on the basis of logic or evidence showing it to be false, but by tainting the source with real or imagined failings in some other area. This often manifests as unsubstantiated allegations and guilt-by-association.

Genetophobia: Fear of genetic explanations for human behaviors, competencies, traits, and preferences. Often manifests as blank slatism and environmental determinism.

Identity colonialism: The assumption that you have a better grasp of what's harmful to a marginalized group than members of that group.

Implicit ESP delusions: People afflicted by these delusions believe they can read others' minds. This belief is not explicitly articulated because it would sound silly if it was. How, then, can it be diagnosed? These delusions often manifest as accusations that someone else is "disingenuous," or insincere; also, that the accuser knows someone's "real" motivations.

Nazinoia: A delusional tendency to see Nazis as hiding behind ideas or practices one opposes, and by accusing anyone to the right of Bernie Sanders of being Nazis, fascists, white supremacists, or alt-right.

Occam's shoehorn: What you use to fit the data to your narrative, no matter how difficult.

Occam's trumpet: Ignoring all possible alternatives to "bias" as explanations for inequality and triumphantly proclaiming that bias is pervasive.

Reductio ad Hitlerum: Attributing ideas and arguments one opposes to Nazism, fascism, or white supremacy. Also known as Godwin's Law.

Trollusions: A pathological tendency to see those who bluntly disagree with you as trolls.

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