Thailand authorities said a visiting Chinese tourist has been diagnosed with a new strain of pneumonia that’s the first confirmed case outside of Wuhan City, China.
Meanwhile, in southern China’s Shenzhen City, a patient has been hospitalized for another mysterious type of severe pneumonia.
Chinese authorities on Jan. 11 publicly released the complete genetic sequence of the coronavirus that causes the respiratory illness, allowing public health professionals to detect whether a patient has the same illness that was first confirmed by Wuhan health authorities on Dec. 31, 2019.
“WHO reiterates that it is essential that investigations continue in China to identify the source of this outbreak and any animal reservoirs or intermediate hosts,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement Jan. 13, in response to the Thailand case.
Chinese authorities haven’t yet identified the cause of the illness, although they say several patients had visited or worked at a seafood market in Wuhan that also sells wild game.
Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea all have identified people with pneumonia-like symptoms who recently traveled to Wuhan and have quarantined them in hospitals.
Thailand
Thailand’s public health ministry said on Jan. 13 that the patient is a woman from the central Chinese city of Wuhan. After she was found with pneumonia-like symptoms on Jan. 8, Thailand authorities quarantined her at the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute, in Nonthaburi.
