Experts say Wuhan coronavirus closer to seasonal influenza
The far lower mortality rate of the new coronavirus identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan means that it is unlikely to have anywhere near the significance for the US economy of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, Capital Economics said.
A coronavirus can range in its symptoms from those of the common cold to pneumonia.
Overnight, news broke of the first reported case of the new sickness in the US state of Washington, dragging stocks on Wall Street lower.
According to Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics, the mortality rate for the new virus "appears to be much lower than SARS."
In remarks to the BBC, one expert offered a similar assessment, emphasising that the patients who had died from the Wuhan virus were all suffering from suppressed immune systems.
Nonetheless, in reaction to the news, the Trump Administration was reportedly planning to restrict travel from several more countries in Africa and Asia, including Nigeria.
And the World Health Organisation was scheduled to decide on Wednesday whether the current outbreak constituted a public health emergency.
"Such as decision would likely lead to a further ramp-up in containment measures world-wide," pointed out analysts at Rabobank.
During the SARS epidemic, Canada registered 400 confirmed cases and 44 deaths, for a mortality rate of about 10.0%, with the ensuing travel restrictions weighing down on economic growth, which shrank at an annualised pace of 0.6% in the second quarter of 2003, after expanding by 2.2% in the first, followed by growth of 1.5% in the third.
The US on the other hand was largely spared.
At last count, the Wuhan virus had inflicted six deaths among the 300 diagnosed cases, meaning that its impact was closer in scale to seasonal influenza "only on a much smaller scale", said Ashworth.
During the present flu season in the States, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, estimated there had already been 265,000 hospitalisations and 12,000 deaths.
"The upshot is that even if this first isolated case of the Wuhan virus in the US develops into a full-scale epidemic, which is unlikely, we wouldn't expect it to have a significant negative impact on economic activity."