The first electron microscope image and more details about the new coronavirus that has caused a pneumonia outbreak in central China's Wuhan City have been released by the National Resources Bank for Pathogenic Microorganisms on Friday.
Apart from the high-resolution images, which show the virus spatial variations in chemical compositions, the gene sequence, virus separation source and the source origin were also made public. Experts and scientists around the world are able to conduct further research based on the shared information.
New coronavirus under the microscope /Photo via China's Center for Disease Control
On Friday, China and other countries affected by the novel coronavirus attended an emergency meeting convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), at which it was decided that the viral illness in China that has sickened hundreds of people is not yet a global health emergency.
Although affected people have been found in South Korea, Thailand, Japan, the U.S., Vietnam, Singapore, it has yet become an uncontrollable disease that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.
Information of the virus /Photo via China's Center for Disease Control
But a WHO spokesman also noted that cases of the new coronavirus are likely to continue to rise in China and it is too soon to evaluate its severity.
"The focus is not so much on the (case) numbers, which we know will go up," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a Geneva news briefing, adding that Chinese health authorities had officially reported 830 confirmed cases and 25 deaths.
"It's still too early to draw conclusions on how severe the virus is." The WHO and its network of experts may look at treatments and vaccines against MERS for possible use against coronavirus, he said.
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