(Yicai Global) Jan. 21 -- Shanghai has diagnosed its second case of pneumonia stemming from a new coronavirus, the city's health agency confirmed in an announcement today, adding it is keeping an eye on another four suspected infections.

The patient is a 35 year-old man with Shanghai household registration who went to Wuhan on Jan. 8 and experienced fever, coughing and runny nose symptoms after his return to Shanghai on Jan. 11, per the information from the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, and was diagnosed on Jan. 16 at a city fever clinic and afterwards hospitalized to undergo isolation treatment. 

China's  National Health Commission confirmed Shanghai's first case of the Wuhan Flu pneumonia last night. That victim is a 56 woman domiciled in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province,  a city of 11 million residents and major transport hub in central China, which is the source of the outbreak of the mysterious new disease. She was admitted to a Shanghai hospital for isolation treatment of fever and fatigue symptoms on Jan. 15.

The two patients are now running normal temperatures, their vital signs are stable, and their close contacts are under medical observation, per the statement.

China had reported 224 cases of the new bug as of 6 p.m. yesterday, of which 217 were confirmed (198 in Wuhan, five in Beijing, and 14 in Guangdong province), and seven more suspected ( two in Sichuan province, one in Yunnan province, two in Shanghai, one in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and one in Shandong province).

Coronaviruses are common viruses that cause infections of the nose, sinuses or throat. Most are not dangerous, but some can be lethal. The name corona ('crown') describes their circular structure with its radiating filaments. A novel coronavirus is a new strain not previously seen in humans.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). An outbreak of SARS in South China produced an eventual 8,098 cases, resulting in 774 deaths in 37 countries between November 2002 and July 2003. Most instances occurred in China and Hong Kong. The virus had an almost 10 percent fatality rate, according to the World Health Organization. No new cases have been reported worldwide since 2004. Chinese scientists traced the virus through the vector of civet cats sold for meat in a Guangzhou market to cave-dwelling bats in Yunnan province in late 2017.

The fact that this outbreak is also linked to a wholesale meat and seafood market selling live animals raised the specter of the animal-to-human transmission of another SARS-style illness, but Chinese health authorities say these two coronaviruses are quite different.

Editor: Ben Armour