The new coronavirus is estimated to be about ten-fold more lethal than the seasonal flu that often fills hospital emergency rooms this time of year, and the average infected person spreads the disease to two or three others, a remarkable rate of increase.
“We’re still trying to get a handle on how many people will get sick,” said Kathryn S. Moffett, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at WVU Medicine in Morgantown. “Can we really contain it? I don’t know the answer to that, but I’m not in a panic.”
COVID-19, a respiratory virus that spreads through contact with tiny droplets from an infected person’s cough or sneeze, has sickened more than 85,000 people worldwide, including 65 people in the U.S. The virus strain was first identified in Chinese province of Hubei in December, where it’s believed to have mutated in birds before jumping to humans.
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