The Wuhan coronavirus is now more widespread than the deadly Sars outbreak in China in 2003.
It has surpassed 7,700 confirmed cases in Mainland China alone, and experts still believe there could be many thousands more unreported cases.
Although it points to the Wuhan coronavirus being more contagious, it is so far much less dangerous.
The Sars outbreak killed 349 people in China and almost 200 in Hong Kong.
So far the coronavirus fatality rate is much lower in comparison.
As of early Thursday, there were 170 confirmed deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus.
Beyond Mainland China there are more than 100 cases.
This time round, the spread of the virus has happened much quicker, presumably due to the much better domestic and international travel links.
This also means potential losses for the tourism industry is so much greater due to the now huge China outbound travel market
Back in 2003 the number of outbound trips from China was less than 17 million.
It has now grown to nearly 10 times that amount.
Travel and airline stocks have been plunging as carriers cancel flights and tour operators scramble to issue refunds.
Dozens of major tourism economies are dependent on the big spending inbound China market from Thailand, Australia, Japan, Europe and the US.
