New coronavirus outbreak in China points to possible mutation, while second wave of cases hit Singapore, South Korea
05/23/2020 / By Arsenio Toledo
As the United States and several European countries take steps to reopen their economies after being on lockdown, several Asian countries are now battling new clusters of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Furthermore, some of these outbreaks may be a sign that the coronavirus is mutating.
As of press time, the world has over five million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 333,212 deaths.
In America, states such as Texas, New Jersey and Idaho are already in the first phase of their reopening programs. In Europe, countries such as Germany, Denmark, France, Spain and Italy are also easing their restrictions. With these in mind, it looks like these countries are finally starting to come out of the disaster they’ve been experiencing these past few months.
However, the same cannot be said for Asia.
Second outbreak in China a possible sign that the coronavirus is mutating
In China’s northeastern region, which borders both Russia and North Korea, over 46 new cases have been reported in the provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, over the past two weeks. In these provinces, lockdown measures were implemented once again to control the spread of the virus.
The symptoms in these new cases, however, indicate that the virus behaves differently.
Doctors attending to these new cases have stated that the disease manifests differently in the new cases than regular coronavirus cases. The main characteristic that health workers observed is that patients take longer to test negative. This suggests that people are infected for longer periods of time.
Furthermore, the patients in this cluster of coronavirus cases only experience lung damage from the virus. In comparison, patients in Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the pandemic, sometimes suffer multiple organ damage across the intestines, kidney and heart.
In addition, the patients have a longer presymptomatic period, that is, the duration of time from when a person is infected to when symptoms first appear. In Wuhan, on the other hand, patients would manifest symptoms after one to two weeks.
This delay before the patients become symptomatic makes it difficult for authorities to catch cases early and prevent the virus’s spread.
“The longer period during which infected patients show no symptoms has created clusters of family infections,” said Qiu Haibo, one of China’s top critical care physicians, during an interview on state television.
The observations of healthcare workers in the area suggest that there is still a lot of uncertainty over how the coronavirus is manifesting. This makes it difficult for China’s healthcare system to react, as it is already struggling to contain this new cluster of infections.
Complicating is that these new cases of the disease are not being reported by authorities, even as they implement strict lockdown measures.
Listen to the Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about how China is manipulating their infection numbers to hide their collapse.
Meanwhile, in Wuhan, several new infections were reported. This is the city’s first new cluster of infections ever since its extremely strict quarantine measures were relaxed. The new cases were discovered in a single residential community, ending a 35-day streak of no new infections. In response, the city is conducting blanket testing on its residents.
Other parts of Asia experiencing renewed outbreaks
After being able to handle their initial wave of coronavirus infections, other parts of Asia are also experiencing renewed outbreaks. (Related: 51 Recovered patients in South Korea test positive AGAIN for coronavirus.)
Similar cases are happening in Singapore and South Korea. In Singapore, one new infection cluster was discovered after a 73-year old Singaporean man died from the coronavirus in a nursing home.
After an outbreak of cases linked to a nightclub in South Korea, the country’s government acted quickly by testing 35,000 people who had links to the cluster. Over 100 people who went to this particular nightclub have tested positive.
Learn more about the coronavirus outbreak over at Pandemic.news.
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Tagged Under: Asia, China, coronavirus, covid-19, Flu, government, Heilongjiang province, Hubei Province, infection cluster, infections, Jilin province, mutation, outbreak, pandemic, second wave, Singapore, South Korea, superbugs, virus, virus mutation, Wuhan
