(ORDO NEWS) — The coronavirus infection COVID-19 is similar to the Spanish flu in the way it spreads. The chief infectious disease specialist of the Russian Ministry of Health, Vladimir Chulanov, told RIA Novosti about this.
The Spanish flu, as Rambler reported, was an influenza pandemic that lasted from 1918 to 1920. Then the flu was infected from 550 million people (30% of the world‘s population), and died as a result of it from 17 million people (0.9% of the population). Today Chulanov said that the Spanish flu and coronavirus infection are partially similar.
“There are common features in the spread,” he explained, recalling that both influenza and COVID-19 are respiratory infections that are transmitted, including by airborne droplets.
At the same time, the infectious disease specialist noted that the coronavirus has a higher epidemic potential than the influenza virus. since the contagiousness (infectivity) is higher – if restrictive measures were not introduced, the spread index of coronavirus infection would be 4-5, which is a high indicator.
Chulanov also expressed the opinion that the second wave of the spread of COVID-19, which is currently observed, will not be very long – two to four weeks.
In addition, he did not rule out the third wave, but explained this by the fact that it is not yet clear how the coronavirus infection will behave during the epidemic season of SARS.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as Rambler reported, began in December in China. According to the latest data, the number of cases worldwide has exceeded 44.4 million. In Russia, the number of cases exceeded 1.56 million.
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