The coronavirus 2019-nCoV epidemic: Is hindsight 20/20?

Malta, Monica; Rimoin, Anne W.; Strathdee, Steffanie A.

a population exceeding 11 million people. In response to COVID-19, the Chinese government restricted 'unnecessary or non-essential large-scale public gatherings' in late January, 2020, in anticipation of domestic and international travel of millions of people for the Chinese New Year celebration. Nearly half of China's population (more than 750 million people) are currently living under various forms of travel restrictions. Several countries have evacuated their nationals from Wuhan and many airlines suspended flights to China. Thousands cruise ship passengers where COVID-19 cases were confirmed are been quarantined. While these measures may have curtailed transmission, by February 19, 2020, COVID-19 was reported in roughly 30 countries, with almost 75,000 confirmed cases. Thousands patients had severe infections, and over 2,100 deaths were reported so far [5] . Dozens of new deaths and thousands of new cases are still being reported every day. A recent mathematical modeling estimated that, by the end of January 2020, more than 75,000 people were infected with COVID-19 only in Wuhan [1] . Notably, cases have occurred in patients who had not traveled to Wuhan, indicative of person-to-person transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020 [5] .