A highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak has doubled the trouble for China as it has to deal with fight bird flu outbreak as well along coronavirus.

The virus has spread through two Chinese provinces – Hunan and Sichuan — near Hubei, the epicenter of Coronavirus. It has been more than two weeks since the virus has been ravaging China, which has drained its medical resources to combat COVID-19.

Also Read: Coronavirus to remain there for years; strict social distancing advised

More than 6,000 poultries have been culled in both the affected provinces – 4,500 in Hunan and 1,840 in Sichuan. Four cases of bird flu had emerged in Xinjiang also in January.

According to China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 1,840 out of the 2,497 chickens on the farm were killed by the infectious viral illness.

While the people are praying for the coronavirus pandemic to end, scientists have predicted that the world might have to live in this situation for years.

Vox has quoted health experts as warning that the world had a slim choice to either practice social distancing or let hundreds of thousands die. “The fight may continue for months or even years,” they warned.

Health experts believe that social distancing is the best way to stop spread of this disease.

Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and author of The Rules of Contagion, a book on how outbreaks spread, said you were not going to get back to a normal life after shutting down eateries and schools for fortnight or a month. “That’s not what’s going to happen,” he said.