China coronavirus outbreak: five members of two families among 41 people infected in Wuhan

Father, son and cousin who lived in the same house and ran a stall at the seafood market at the centre of outbreak among those hit, authorities say

Seafood trader and his wife also being treated, despite woman denying having visited the market

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A man leaves a treatment centre in Wuhan, where 41 people have tested positive for the new strain of the coronavirus. Photo: AFP

Zhuang Pinghuiin BeijingandNg Kang-chung

Published: 2:16pm, 15 Jan 2020Updated: 4:05pm, 17 Feb 2020

Health officials have revealed that three members of the same family were among the 41 people that contracted the newly identified coronavirus in the central China city of Wuhan, adding that they have neither confirmed nor ruled out the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

The three men – a father, his son and a cousin – lived together and ran a seafood stall at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which is widely thought to have been where the pneumonia outbreak started, Wuhan officials told visiting health experts from Hong Kong.

In an update released early on Wednesday, the officials said also that a husband and wife were among those affected. But while the husband worked at the seafood market as a trader, his wife said she had never even visited it.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, one of the Hong Kong experts, said she was told there was no definitive evidence of human-to-human transmission and that no health care workers had been infected.

While the possibility of “limited” human-to-human transmission could not be ruled out, the risk of sustained human-to-human transmission was low, she said.

“The three men fell ill around the same time. As such, perhaps, they were not classified as human-to-human transmission cases within a family,” Chuang said.

She said the visiting experts had two meetings with local officials but did not visit the market.