A 57-year-old female shrimp seller in China's Wuhan city, the originating point of the coronavirus pandemic, has been identified as one of the first victims of COVID-19, which has claimed nearly 28,000 lives around the world so far, according to media reports.
The coronavirus 'patient zero', who made a full recovery in January after month-long treatment, believes the Chinese government could have checked the spread of the disease had it acted sooner.
Wei Guixian, as identified by The Wall Street Journal, was selling shrimps at the Huanan Seafood Market on December 10 when she developed a cold.
Believing she had the common flu, Wei went to a local clinic for treatment where she was given an injection, the Mirror UK reported.
However, Wei continued to feel weak and visited Eleventh Hospital in Wuhan a day later.
The feeling of lethargy persisted and Wei visited one of the biggest medical facilities in the region -- Wuhan Union Hospital -- on December 16.
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At the Union Hospital, Wei was told her sickness was ruthless and that many from Huanan Market had visited the hospital with matching symptoms.
At the end of December, Wei was quarantined when doctors related the emergence of the coronavirus with the seafood market, the Mirror quoted Chinese news outlet The Paper.
The article in The Paper concluded that the new coronavirus is likely to become the fifth endemic coronavirus in humans. "Coronaviruses clearly have the ability to cross species boundaries and adapt to new hosts, which allows us to more directly predict more coronaviruses in the future."