China on Friday reported another sharp rise in the number of people infected with a new virus, as the death toll neared 1,400. The National Health Commission said 121 more people had died and there were 5,090 new confirmed cases. The number of reported cases has been rising more quickly after the hardest-hit province changed its method of counting them Thursday. There are now 63,851 confirmed cases in mainland China, of which 1,380 have died. Hubei province is now including cases based on a physician’s diagnosis and before they have been confirmed by lab tests. Of the 5,090 new cases, 3,095 fell into that category.
As the death toll due to the deadly coronavirus continues to rise, the University of Southampton has released a map that shows the spread of coronavirus with the movement of Wuhan residents. According to the university's research team, more than 60,000 residents of Wuhan have travelled out of the country since the outbreak of coronavirus.
There was a significant window between the time the Coronavirus outbreak was confirmed in Wuhan till the time the Chinese authorities locked down the city for travel, allowing millions in that period to travel within China and around the world.
Map shows spread of coronavirus through travellers from China's Wuhan
A combination of flight trackers and mobile phone tracking data has been used by several researchers, which helped them track the movement of Wuhan residents. The idea was to understand the typical travel and movement patterns of people within China and around the world.
“It’s vital that we understand patterns of population movement, both within China and globally, in order to assess how this new virus might spread – domestically and internationally. By mapping these trends and identifying high-risk areas, we can help inform public health interventions, such as screenings and healthcare preparedness,” said Andrew Tatem, Director of WorldPop and professor within Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton.
According to the research, Bangkok has been identified as the city with the greatest risk due to coronavirus. This is followed by Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Phuket, Osaka, Kuala Lumpur and Macau making up the top 10 cities at risk.
Sydney at 12, New York at 16, Dubai at 17, London at 19 and Paris at 27 are some other cities that do otherwise see a lot of travel around the world.
Earlier, scientists in the US had developed an interactive map of the novel coronavirus spread, that allows users to see the number of cases worldwide, recoveries and deaths, as well as trends in realtime.
Red dots indicate spread of coronavirus
The map updated every few hours with data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization (WHO), Chinese and other government agencies, including those in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
"Mapping is a powerful tool to tell social, cultural and political phenomena," said Bo Zhao, an assistant professor at the University of Washington in the US.
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