One person has reportedly died of a rodent-carried hantavirus infection in China, sparking wild — and completely unfounded — fears of a “coronavirus 2.0″ pandemic on social media.
The Global Times, a state-controlled Chinese publication, tweeted about the death in English late Monday, although a story about the incident has not been posted to its English website. “A person from Yunnan Province died while he was on his way back to Shandong Province for work on a chartered bus on Monday,” the publication tweeted, along with a photo of someone being screened for COVID-19. “He tested positive for #hantavirus.
Other 32 people on bus were tested.” Hantavirus is an extremely rare type of virus that infects humans through dust contaminated by the