There are confirmed cases of new type of coronavirus human-to-human transmission in China, and 14 medical workers have got infected, the head of the special expert body of the country's National Health Commission said on Monday.
"According to the information that we currently have, the new type of coronavirus certainly transmits from human to human. Two cases have been registered in the Guangdong Province, they [infected people] have not visited Wuhan [where the new virus was reported earlier in January], but members of their families have and they have got infected with the new type of coronavirus there. This is why we can now say for sure that the virus transmits from human to human". Zhong Nanshan said, as aired by the China Central Television.
He added that 14 medical workers were infected.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS) was first registered in southern China in 2002 and spread to over than two dozen countries, taking the lives of some 800 people.
People infected with the virus reportedly display symptoms typical of pneumonia and other acute respiratory diseases.
