3.6. Regional Distribution
According to the WHO data on Jul. 31th, 2003 [24], a total of 8,096 clinically diagnosed cases of SARS were reported worldwide, with 774 deaths and 26 countries and regions affected (Figure 2a). Most cases were in Asia, Europe, and America. The main countries in Asia were China (including mainland, Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), Singapore, and so on. The total number of cases in mainland China was 5,327, with 349 deaths [53]. The cases were mainly concentrated in Beijing, Guangdong, and Shanxi (Figure 2b) [54]. In total, 2,102 patients were from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, with 336 deaths [24].
According to the latest data on Feb. 14th, 2020 [55,56], there have been a total of 67,081 clinically diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in worldwide, with 1,526 deaths. A total of 25 countries and regions have infected people. Due to the Spring Festival transportation peak, the disease has been spread more rapidly across China (Figure 2c). As the origin area of COVID-19, Hubei province has been the most severely infected area, with 54,406 cumulative diagnosis cases. Wuhan city has 37,914 cases. Guangdong, Henan, and Zhejiang province have 1,294 cases, 1,212 cases, and 1,162 cases, respectively (Figure 2d). At present, the COVID-19 outbreak has been spread to all parts of China and around the world, including the United States, Thailand, and Japan. It has been noticed that most of these patients have ever been to Wuhan or contacted with people who had been in Wuhan. The distribution of COVID-2019 patients in China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) and Hubei Province is shown in Figure 3.