BEIJING (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The pneumonia outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan will not evolve into a massive outbreak similar in scale to the Sars outbreak 17 years ago, said a renowned Chinese scientist.

Dr Zhong Nanshan, who discovered the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) coronavirus in 2003, said on Monday (Jan 20) that evidence has shown that the new virus causing the pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan can spread from human to human.