A dozen new cases of influenza were reported last week to Jefferson County Health Department. The majority of cases were influenza A; none were reported to be hospitalized last week. This brings our total numbers since last fall to 78.
Of course, the bigger concern to most is the looming unknown of COVID-19, the newly discovered coronavirus that was recognized in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. As of March 2, there were nearly 89,000 cases and over 3,000 deaths reported worldwide. China had its lowest number of people infected with just over 200 new cases, while the rest of the world had almost 1,600 cases in one day. On Feb. 2, four weeks ago, the total number of cases was 14,557 in 23 countries.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Situation Report for March 2, 64 countries have reported cases of COVID-19. The countries currently most burdened by the outbreak, besides China: Republic of Korea (4,212 cases reported/22 deaths), Italy (1,689 reported/35 deaths), Iran (978 reported, 54 deaths), Japan (254, 6 deaths), Germany (129), Singapore (106), France (100/2 deaths) and the U.S. (62), in that order.
