Risk Assessment Report – 26 January 2020

An outbreak of novel coronavirus was initially identified last December 2019 in the city of Wuhan (in central China) wherein an emerging cluster of people with pneumonia with no clear cause were linked primarily to stallholders who worked at the Huanan Seafood Market. The suspected source is a wholesale seafood market with a thousand stalls also selling chickens, pheasants, bats, marmots, venomous snakes, spotted deer and the organs of rabbits and other wild animals. According to US-CDC, many of the patients in the outbreak in Wuhan, China reportedly had some link to this market, suggesting animal-toperson spread. However, a growing number of patients reportedly have not had exposure to animal markets, suggesting possible person-to-person spread is occurring. At this time, it’s unclear how the virus is spreading between people. Wuhan is the seventh-largest city in China, with a population of more than 11 million people. It is a major transportation hub in central China, approximately 700 miles (1,100 km) south of Beijing, 500 miles (800 km) west of Shanghai, and 600 miles (970 km) north of Hong Kong.