Coronavirus could potentially become a ‘seasonal’ illness according to infection disease expert Associate Professor Dr Sanjaya Senanayake. 9News
"SARS was quite deadly. It killed about 10 to 15 per cent of people. Coronavirus has killed two per cent of confirmed cases, but there are lots of cases we don't know about, so it seems like the death rate is much lower.""Ebola is a different beast," Dr Senanayake said.
"The thing about SARS and Ebola, and hopefully this virus as well, is that if you isolated people as soon as they developed symptoms you could stop them from infecting other people," he added.Dr Senanayake said there are still a large number of suspected cases that have yet to be reported, making it difficult to determine how long the epidemic could last.The parents of an 18-month-old toddler have made desperate calls to have their daughter evacuated from the coronavirus epicentre.
Despite reports indicating the virus is spreading at a rapid rate, Dr Senanayake said the infection rate is slowing down. A number of extended travel bans and quarantines have been put in place around the world to control the virus, including in Australia.However, Dr Senanayake said these measures won't last forever and when restrictions are lifted, there is a possibility the virus will spread further.
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