British researchers say more than 1,700 people are likely to have been infected by a mystery SARS-like virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan as of January 12.
Chinese authorities have said pneumonia linked to the virus, which has so far killed two patients there, has hit at least 41 people in the country.
But a paper published Friday by scientists with the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College in London said the number of those affected in the city was likely to be well over a thousand.
Authorities in Hong Kong have stepped up detection measures, including temperature checkpoints for inbound travelers from the Chinese mainland.
The U.S. said from Friday it would begin screening flights arriving from
Wuhan at San Francisco airport and New York's JFK, which both receive direct
Flights, as well as Los Angeles, where many flights connect.■
<Photo: Yonhap News>
