What’s behind the dramatic rise in coronavirus cases

DETROIT – There are two new coronavirus cases in the United States since Wednesday.

Both cases were in people who were recently flown out of Wuhan, China to quarantine facilities. The cases are in California and Texas. Those cases being the total in the United States to 15.

Although CDC officials warn that there will likely be more cases in time, the general risk to Americans is still considered low. That is in contrast to the situation in China where the case count jumped by 15,000 overnight. China is also reporting 254 new deaths.

The outbreak now impacts 20 countries worldwide, but relatively few cases are outside China.

In China the way they record the figures have changed. If someone goes to a doctor and get a chest scan that shows a lung infection, that means you have the virus and can be treated in a hospital. That’s why numbers have spiked. That still doesn’t explain the large rise in the number of deaths.

Officials have also fired the two top officials in the worst-hit province and replaced them with men who are very close to president Xi Jinping. Beijing is basically laying the blame on the problems on local officials. They’ve also declared wartime control in areas of two cities.

There has been some relief for Americans caught up in the situation. A cruise ship that held 650 Americans has now docked in Cambodia. And on another cruise ship, although the number of infections has risen, many Americans are being allowed to leave the ship in Japan. They will still be under quarantine.


About the Authors:

Dr. McGeorge can be seen on Local 4 News helping Metro Detroiters with health concerns when he isn't helping save lives in the emergency room at Henry Ford Hospital.

Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.