Beijing: The new outbreak of coronavirus in China has left the scientists suggesting that the virus is changing itself. They are seeing the virus act differently compared to the older infections in other parts of the country, which might be a hint that the virus is changing its structure and transforming to become undefeatable. With the change in the virus, the Chinese doctors say that the treatment methods will be even more difficult to develop.
Qiu Haibo, one of China’s top critical care doctors, told state television on Tuesday that the patients from the northern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang seem to carry the virus for a more time and take longer to test negative.
These patients are showing signs of symptoms much after the usual 1 to 2 weeks as seen in the other cases of the country. This is making it difficult for the officials to contain the virus and stop it from spreading.
“The longer period during which infected patients show no symptoms has created clusters of family infections,” said Qiu, who was earlier sent to Wuhan to help the previous clusters of the patients with the virus. Around 46 cases have been reported over the past two weeks spread across three cities — Shulan, Jilin city and Shengyang, a reappearance of infection that renewed lockdown measures in a region of 100 million people.
The first case was reported on May 7th in Jilin, on the border of Russia and North Korea. By 21st May, the virus had spread to over 46 people, each one was linked to the other.
The index patient is yet to be identified but it’s speculated to be a woman who works in the laundry for a police station in Shulan city. She is said to have been in contact with more than one person from Russia, second to the US in terms of the number of coronavirus cases in the world.
Top Chinese doctors have said that the new cases show damage mostly to the lungs and around 10% of these turn critical, unlike the usual corona virus which causes a multi-organ damage.
The findings suggest that the new cluster aims to cease the plans of the government to revive the thrashed economy.
Researchers from around the world are trying to determine if the virus is mutating in a considerable way to become more infectious as it races through the human population, but early research suggesting this possibility has been criticized for being overblown.
“In theory, some changes in the genetic structure can lead to changes in the virus structure or how the virus behaves,” said Keiji Fukuda, director and clinical professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health. “However, many mutations lead to no discernible changes at all. It’s likely that the observations in China don’t have a simple correlation with a mutation and “very clear evidence” is needed before concluding that the virus is mutating.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese government is not happy with the US sending the deportees to China who are infected with covid-19.
