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Churches are closing, sports leagues are suspending seasons, and theme parks are shutting down.

And if you didn’t get the note, Costco banned free samples, too.

If you’re just catching up – or you don’t know what to believe – here are eight key facts you should know about the coronavirus (COVID-19):

1. IT’S MORE DEADLY THAN THE FLU

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the death rate around the world is 3-4 percent, although in South Korea it’s been closer to 0.6 percent. Still, both figures are far higher than the mortality rate for the flu.

“I mean, people always say, well, the flu does this, the flu does that,” said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The flu has a mortality of 0.1 percent. This has a mortality of 10 times that. That’s the reason I want to emphasize we have to stay ahead of the game in preventing this.”

“It is,” he said.

2. IT’S ESPECIALLY DEADLY AMONG THE ELDERLY

A WHO study of 55,000 cases in China showed the mortality rate for those over 80 was 21.9 percent.

The CDC says people who are “higher risk of getting very sick” from the coronavirus include “older adults” and “people who have serious chronic medical conditions” such as heart disease, diabetes and lung disease.

3. IT CAN BE CONTAGIOUS UP TO 37 DAYS

Underscoring the difficulty in containing the virus, a new study in the British journal The Lancet showed that those who contracted the coronavirus in China were contagious for up to 37 days, although the average timespan was 20 days. The shortest was 8 days.

Meanwhile, the virus may be spreading because people have it for several days before symptoms are obvious. A U.S. study of the virus suggested individuals “may shed and transmit the virus while pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic.”

4. IT CAN LIVE ON SURFACES FOR 3 DAYS AND IN THE AIR FOR 3 HOURS

A government-funded study found that the coronavirus “could be detected” in the air “up to 3 hours post aerosolization, up to 4 hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 2-3 days on plastic and stainless steel.”

The virus, the authors said, demonstrates “relatively long viability on stainless steel and polypropylene [plastic] compared to copper or cardboard.”

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Source: Christian Headlines