WASHINGTON: Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci, an American physician and immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, has said Coronavirus was different from other viruses as it was a respiratory borne illness that could easily spread from person to person.

In an interview with an American TV programme ‘The Daily Show’, he said corona virus could be spread if someone had no symptoms. Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci, who is also the head of White house coronavirus task force warned mortality rate of this flue like virus was very high as compared to normal flu.

He said Covid-19 can be devastating particularly for certain sets of population including those with underlying conditions of heart disease, diabetes or any other lung disease. One can easily catch the virus by sneezing and coughing of a corona patient, hand shaking and by touching any hard surface having virus as it can stay on the surface for several hours. He stressed that it was more important to wash hands frequently.

Also Read: Death toll from coronavirus rises to 11 in Pakistan

The doctor said, “There is no proven, safe and effective therapy for coronavirus disease, however there are number of clinical trials that are trying to control randomized trials to get the definitive answer what works or what not.”

Coronavirus pandemic could have caused 40 million deaths if left unchecked

The outbreak of COVID-19 would likely have caused 40 million deaths this year in the absence of any preventative measures. This is one of the findings of a new analysis by researchers at Imperial College London, which estimated the potential scale of the coronavirus pandemic across the globe, highlighting that failure to mitigate the impact could lead to huge loss of life.

The report is the twelfth to be released by The WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Modeling within the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (GIDA), Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA).

According to the unmitigated scenario, if left unchecked the virus could have infected 7 billion people and caused in the region of 40 million deaths this year. Social distancing to reduce the rate of social contacts by 40 percent, coupled with a 60 percent reduction in social contacts among the elderly population (at highest risk) could reduce this burden by around half. However, even at this level of reduction, health systems in all countries would be rapidly overwhelmed.

An author of the report from Imperial, Dr Patrick Walker suggest that all countries face a choice between intensive and costly measures to suppress transmission or risk health systems becoming rapidly overwhelmed.

Pakistan synthesizes hand sanitizer for Coronavirus

The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has synthesized a hand sanitizer as a preventive tool against the Coronavirus.

This hand sanitizer has strictly been synthesized as per the World Health Organization’s standards.

It is available in the packing of 100 mili liter and 250 ml at the regional offices of the PCSIR in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta for both public and private sector.