When China was reluctant to acknowledge the other coronavirus in 2002 - in Pics

According to a Daily Mail report, towards the end of 2002, several chefs and animal traders in the southern Chinese coastal province of Guangdong fell ill. They were suffering from an unknown respiratory disease and cough, feeling feverish and difficulty in breathing were some of the symptoms.

This was the start of the global epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), says the report. SARS is also a deadly, then new coronavirus, which infected thousands of people in 30 countries, including India. 

SARS was the first major coronavirus outbreak anywhere in the world. However, India had managed to keep the country insulated from raging SARS coronavirus. 

Doctors in China were worried when SARS coronavirus broke out in the country. But like in the case of COVID-19, China seemed reluctant in acknowledging the outbreak. During the SARS outbreak, China recognised it only in February whereas the first case was reported around November-December. It took additional three weeks to confirm that the virus could transmit from human to human, claim news reports.

While  SARS outbreak did not assume the scale SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 pandemic has attained, the report claims, that the 2002 outbreak was a "warning" which China overlooked and the world is now paying the price 18-19 years later