The COVID‐19 epidemic

The current outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus disease 2019; previously 2019-nCoV), epi-centred in Hubei Province of the People's Republic of China, has spread to many other countries. On 30. January 2020, the WHO Emergency Committee declared a global health emergency based on growing case notification rates at Chinese and international locations. The case detection rate is changing daily and can be tracked in almost real time on the website provided by Johns Hopkins University 1 and other forums. As of midst of February 2020, China bears the large burden of morbidity and mortality, whereas the incidence in other Asian countries, in Europe and North America remains low so far.…