World Health Organisation experts and a range of other scientists say there is no evidence to support an assertion by a high-profile Italian doctor that the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic has been losing potency.
Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at Italy's San Raffaele Hospital in Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy's epidemic, on Sunday told state television that the coronavirus"clinically no longer exists".
It is not unusual for viruses to mutate and adapt as they spread. The pandemic has so far killed more than 370,000 people and infected more than 6 million.Martin Hibberd, a professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said major studies looking at genetic changes in the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 did not support the idea that it was becoming less potent, or weakening in any way.
"We have never said that the virus has changed, we said that the interaction between the virus and the host has definitely changed," Dr Zangrillo told Reuters. People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your state’s restrictions on gathering limits.
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