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WHO: Coronavirus may affect two-thirds of world population

14 February 2020 11:35 (UTC +04:00)

Coronavirus, with its new official name COVID-19, may affect up to two-thirds of world population, said a specialist working for the World Health Organization (WHO), APA reports citing Bloomberg.

According to the website, WHO adviser Ira Longini, who tracked studies of the virus's transmissibility in China, said that "Isolating cases and quarantining contacts is not going to stop this virus."

Unless the transmissibility changes, surveillance and containment can only work so well," he was quoted as saying.

According to his remarks to Bloomberg, Gabriel Leung, a public health professor at the University of Hong Kong, is on the same page with Longini.

The scientist also warned that close to two-thirds of the world could catch the virus "if it is left unchecked."