The COVID-19 coronavirus continues to spread to more countries and world capitals, even though new cases in China dropped to their lowest levels in over a month.
A shift in the crisis appears to be taking shape as hundreds of patients were released from hospitals at the epicentre of the outbreak in China, while the World Health Organisation reported that nine-times as many new infections were recorded outside the country as inside it over the past 24 hours.
As clusters of the disease continue to swell in South Korea, Italy and Iran, the virus is also beginning to spread significantly in more countries.
The United States, Spain and Germany have seen a recent spike in reported cases, and in some instances health authorities are unable to trace who in the country was the first disease carrier.
United States
In the United States, four people died on Monday (local time) bringing the death toll in America to six. So far, every death from COVID-19 has been in Washington state.
The current number of confirmed cases is 100, according to the New York Times, and the disease is spreading among people with no history of overseas travel.
For weeks, all cases in the US were traceable to people who had travelled overseas or had close contact with someone who had recently returned from a trip. But that recently started changing after health officials in California, Oregon and Washington state reported people contracting the virus who hadn't travelled to high-risk countries.
The first death was announced on Saturday (local time) with a man in his 50s who had underlying health conditions. There was a second death on Sunday with a man in his 70s who also had underlying health conditions.
And on Monday four further deaths were announced, including three people who were resthome residents.
Computational biologist Trevor Bedford at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center tweeted on Sunday that the virus could've been spreading undetected throughout Washington state for six weeks.
"I believe we're facing an already substantial outbreak in Washington State that was not detected until now due to narrow case definition requiring direct travel to China," he wrote.
He believes there are "a few hundred" current infections rather than the official 100.
Spain
Spain has also seen a rise in reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 and there are hotspots where authorities have reportedly been unable to trace patient zero, El Pais says.
Around 119 people have been tested positive for the disease. Of those, 27 were reported on Monday (local time).
The largest number of new reports were from Madrid and the northern region Cantabria, where there were 13 and nine new cases respectively.
The recent surge in cases is partly due to health authorities introducing more comprehensive testing to include people with unexplained respiratory illnesses, despite whether they have travelled to a high-risk country recently.
Around 90 percent of confirmed cases are from people who have returned from travelling, El Pais reports.
But there are at least five people in Torrejón de Ardoz - an area in Madrid - who contracted COVID-19 without travelling overseas and doctors have been unable to trace the infections to a source patient.
"In the next few days we will see the real extent of this episode," a health expert told El Pais. "Sometimes it is limited and the number of cases shows a linear rise until they self-contain. Other times, growth is exponential. We have to be alert to see what happens now."
Germany
Total infections rose to 157 in Germany with 28 of these being new diagnoses on Monday (local time).
More than half of the cases are in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, where several schools remained close in an effort to prevent COVID-19's spread after staff members tested positive.
Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, said that authorities had traced the origin of 140 cases in Germany.
Most of the known coronavirus cases in Germany have been mild so far. Authorities have reported no deaths in connection with the new virus.
Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday it was up to local authorities to decide whether to hold large events in Europe's largest economy after Switzerland on Friday banned events drawing more than 1000 people due to the disease.
"The federal government has formulated some parameters in the crisis committee but… the Infection Protection Act foresees that the decision is in the hands of local authorities," Spahn told a news conference.
The sharp rise in cases caused German Minister Horst Seehofer to refuse to shake hands with Chancellor Angela Merkel when she greeted him as a way to stop the disease's spread.
Lothar Weiler of the Robert Koch Institute says the COVID-19 alert level in the country has been raised from "low to moderate" to "moderate", but there was no need to close the border to stem the contagion.
Reuters/Newshub
