Expert says coronavirus could be “at least” ten times worse than SARS

Comments after visiting Wuhan

Comments after visiting Wuhan
Guan Yi, director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases at Hong Kong University, traveled to Wuhan on Tuesday and Wednesday and now he’s warning that the disease could be a generational pandemic.
“My conservative estimate is that this epidemic could end up at least 10 times the scale of Sars [severe acute respiratory disease],” he told Caixin today.
There are signs China is planning to lock down a second city. At midnight, all public transport in Huanggang will be halted. It’s a city of 7.5 million located 70km east of Wuhan.
Dr. Guan said he left Wuhan convinced that “the epidemic situation was out of control.”
“I’ve experienced so much and I’ve never felt scared before,” he said. “But this time I’m scared.”
He said that models suggest that due to incubation lags, symptoms may appear more broadly across China beginning on Saturday.
SARS infected 8,089 people globally and killed 774 with China accounting for the vast majority. It curbed Chinese GDP growth in 2003 by 0.8-2.0 percentage points.
If this video of a hospital in Wuhan is authentic, then watch out. The announcement of a plan to build a special hospital in the city in six days suggests there is overwhelming demand.