As of 25 January 2020, at least 1,975 cases had been reported since the first patient was hospitalized on 12 December 2019. Epidemiological investigations have suggested that the outbreak was associated with a seafood market in Wuhan. Here we study a single patient who was a worker at the market and who was admitted to the Central Hospital of Wuhan on 26 December 2019 while experiencing a severe respiratory syndrome that included fever, dizziness and a cough. Metagenomic RNA sequencing4 of a sample of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from the patient identified a new RNA virus strain from the family Coronaviridae, which is designated here 'WH-Human 1' coronavirus (and has also been referred to as '2019-nCoV'). Phylogenetic analysis of the complete viral genome (29,903 nucleotides) revealed that the virus was most closely related (89.1% nucleotide similarity) to a group of SARS-like coronaviruses (genus Betacoronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus) that had previously been found in bats in China5. This outbreak highlights the ongoing ability of viral spill-over from animals to cause severe disease in humans.
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[3] Zhuyang Han, Gin Nam Sze To, Sau Chung Fu, Christopher Yu-Hang Chao, Wenguo Weng and Quanyi Huang, Effect of human movement on airborne disease transmission in an airplane cabin: study using numerical modeling and quantitative risk analysis, 2014.
[4] Hertzberg VS, Weiss H, Elon L, Si W, Norris SL; Behaviors, movements, and transmission of droplet-mediated respiratory diseases during transcontinental airline flights, inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(14):201711611 · March 2018