On 31 December 2019, human cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology were reported in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. A CoV, named 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV), was identified as the causative virus by Chinese authorities on 7 January 2020. Since then, human cases with travel history to Wuhan have been reported by several provinces in China and by a number of countries outside China.
As of 2nd February 2020, the virus has now spread to 4 continents and 27 countries/ territories worldwide and the outbreak has killed at least 305 people and infected more than 14,559 globally. A reported death in one human on 2nd February 2020 in the Phillipines marked the first death outside of mainland China.
