Coronavirus, beer unrelated

Chinese officials have not identified the source of the new coronavirus—but it isn’t from Corona beer. The name of the new strain of viral pneumonia is confusing some people familiar with the Mexican brew. Google Trends reported a recent spike in searches for “beer virus” and “corona beer virus.” Searches for coronavirus symptoms also rose more than 1,050 percent last week, the search engine analysis site tweeted.

What’s the status of the outbreak? Chinese authorities raised the death toll to 170 on Thursday, and, according to the Xinhua news agency, they are working to respond to reports of food shortages in the most affected areas. More countries have reported new cases, and some are seeing the virus begin to spread locally as foreigners evacuate the hard-hit Hubei province in central China. The World Health Organization has convened an expert committee in Geneva to determine whether to declare coronavirus a global emergency.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Lynde Langdon’s report on how nations prepare for pandemics of the flu and other respiratory illnesses.