Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses known to cause respiratory infections. These can range from the common cold to more serious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). This new coronavirus originated in Hubei Province, China and the disease is named COVID-19.
Coronavirus is most likely to spread from person-to-person through: Direct close contact with a person while they are infectious or in the 24 hours before their symptoms appeared. Close contact with a person with a confirmed infection who coughs or sneezes. Touching objects or surfaces (such as door handles or tables) contaminated from a cough or sneeze from a person with a confirmed infection, and then touching your mouth or face.
Social distancing is one way to help slow the spread of viruses such as COVID-19. Social distancing includes staying at home when you are unwell and keeping a distance of 1.5 metres between you and other people whenever possible. It is important to minimise physical contact especially with people at higher risk of developing serious symptoms, such as older people and people with existing health conditions. Government restrictions apply for organised outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people and [...]
You do not need to wear a mask if you are healthy. While the use of masks can help to prevent transmission of disease from infected patients to others, masks are not currently recommended for use by healthy members of the public for the prevention of infections like coronavirus.
Some people who are infected may not get sick at all, some will get mild symptoms from which they will recover easily, and others may become very ill, very quickly. From previous experience with other coronaviruses, the people at most risk of serious infection are: people with compromised immune systems (e.g. cancer) elderly people Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as they have higher rates of chronic illness people with diagnosed chronic medical conditions very young children and babies* [...]
