What Is the Coronavirus? 10 Things to Know
4. How Is Coronavirus Spread?
One of the things that can make coronaviruses especially dangerous is the fact that they can be spread between animals as well as humans. Referred to as a zoonotic disease, coronavirus may be passed to humans from a number of domestic as well as wild animals, in addition to being passed from human to human.
Interestingly, coronaviruses in general are far more common in animals, and many strains never pass to humans at all. Some strains of coronavirus may even have originally been carried by such exotic animals as camels and civets, a native mammal to tropical areas of both Africa and Asia. Like many of its predecessors, 2019 novel coronavirus is likely to have been originally carried by animals and passed to humans later, but this requires more research to prove.
Many experts believe that the virus passes relatively easily from person to person, which means it may spread quickly and potentially be difficult to contain. However, since it is such a new disease, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the exact nature of how it works.
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