Coronavirus' Incubation Period Could be 10 Days Longer Than Originally Thought

The medical researchers handling the coronavirus crisis have discovered that the incubation period for the virus ranges up to 10 days longer than previously through bringing it to 24 days, according to the Independent.

A longer incubation period

Dr. Zhong Nanshan, the researcher responsible for discovering the SARS coronavirus in 2003 and the leading advisor in the current crisis co-authored the new paper regarding the coronavirus's longer incubation period.

The study has not yet been peer-reviewed and was published on Sunday and titled "Clinical characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in China."

RELATED: THE WUHAN CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IN CHINA: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR

It also found that only as little as only 1.18% of those infected “had a direct contact with wildlife”. The majority contracted the virus from being in contact with people from Wuhan.

The research also stated that the virus “spreads rapidly by human-to-human transmission” and its severity “predict poor clinical outcomes.”

The recent news is very important as current advice from health organizations and ministries urges people traveling from infected countries to only quarantine themselves for 14 days. This advice should now be changed based on new information.

Some good news at last

The bad news comes at a bit of a good time as the World Health Organisation has just stated that no new countries were added to the list of infected cases in the last 24 hours, bringing some much-needed hope in a dire situation.

The news also comes along a time where scientists declare they fear the coronavirus could become worse in numbers than the flu. 

Infectious disease expert Ian Lipkin has declared his concerns over the coronavirus' evolution stating that although the flu has still currently killed more people than the coronavirus because the latter is still relatively unknown it could evolve into something worse as time goes on. 

"It’s a new virus. We don’t know much about it, and therefore we’re all concerned to make certain it doesn’t evolve into something even worse," Lipkin concluded.