Eight patients with viral pneumonia were initially identified as novel coronavirus.

　　Cctv newsThe reporter learned from the Wuhan Municipal Health and Wellness Commission that yesterday (8th), eight patients with unexplained viral pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province were cured and discharged. It is understood that these eight patients were treated in relevant hospitals in Wuhan before, and then they were all concentrated in Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan. After diagnosis and treatment by medical institutions, these 8 patients have had no clinical manifestations such as fever and pneumonia for several days. After being diagnosed by clinical experts, they met the discharge standards and have all been discharged.

　　Preliminary progress has been made in pathogen identification

　　With regard to the progress of etiological identification of viral pneumonia with unknown causes in Wuhan, the reporter learned today (9th) from the expert group on preliminary evaluation of pathogen detection results that as of 21: 00 on January 7th, 2020, a novel coronavirus was detected in the laboratory, and the whole genome sequence of the virus was obtained. By nucleic acid detection, 15 cases were found to be novel coronavirus positive, and the virus was isolated from a positive patient sample, showing a typical coronavirus morphology under the electron microscope.

　　The expert group believes that the pathogen of this unexplained viral pneumonia case was initially determined to be novel coronavirus. The laboratory used genome sequencing, nucleic acid detection, virus isolation and other methods to detect the etiology of patients’ alveolar lavage fluid, throat swab, blood and other samples.

　　Coronavirus is a kind of pathogen that mainly causes respiratory and intestinal diseases. There are many regularly arranged protrusions on the surface of this kind of virus particles, and the whole virus particle is like a crown of an emperor, hence the name "coronavirus". Besides humans, coronavirus can also infect many mammals such as pigs, cows, cats, dogs, minks, camels, bats, mice, hedgehogs and many birds.

　　So far, there are six known human coronaviruses. Among them, four coronaviruses are common in the population, with low pathogenicity, and generally only cause mild respiratory symptoms similar to the common cold. Two other coronaviruses — — Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, also known as SARS coronavirus and MERS coronavirus, can cause serious respiratory diseases. Novel coronavirus, which caused the epidemic, is different from the human coronavirus that has been found. Further scientific research is needed to understand the virus.