GUANGZHOU: The coronavirus outbreak is hitting a peak in China this month and may be over by April, the government's senior medical adviser said on Tuesday (Feb 10), in the latest assessment of an epidemic that has rattled the world. But Zhong was optimistic the new outbreak would soon slow, with the number of new cases already declining in some places. "I hope this outbreak or this event may be over in something like April," he said in a hospital run by Guangzhou Medical University, where 11 coronavirus patients were being treated. Though his comments may soothe some global anxiety over the coronavirus - which has killed more than 1,000 people and seen more than 40,000 cases, almost all in China - Zhong's previous forecast of an earlier peak turned out to be premature. Zhong said uncertainties remained about how the coronavirus was infecting patients, if it can spread via faeces and whether so-called "superspreaders" were helping transmit the disease.

Source: thestar February 11, 2020 11:03 UTC