The ACT Health Directorate has released an information sheet to help Canberrans to better understand novel coronavirus in the wake of confirmed cases of the virus in Australia.
“The ACT Health Directorate has well established processes and procedures in place for the management of infectious diseases should they occur in the ACT and is working in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Health and our jurisdictional counterparts to monitor and respond to the situation,” the Directorate said.
It said novel coronaviruses were a group of viruses that could cause illness in humans and animals and that were found worldwide.
“In humans, coronaviruses can cause mild illness, such as the common cold and gastrointestinal infections, as well as more severe illness, such as that caused by SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome),” the Directorate said.
It said novel coronavirus, also referred to as 2019-nCoV, was a new strain of coronavirus that had not been previously identified in humans.
“Much remains to be understood about the new coronavirus, which was first identified in China earlier this month,” the Directorate said.
“Not enough is known about 2019-nCoV to draw definitive conclusions about how it is transmitted, clinical features of disease, or the extent to which it has spread,” it said.
“The source of infection also remains unknown.”
It said there was some evidence of human to human transmission, given some cases recently identified did not report contact with the initial known source, which raised the possibility of direct transmission.
“The majority of cases have so far been people who have been in Wuhan, or visited Wuhan,” the Directorate said.
To read the full information sheet and find links to further information, visit this PS News link.
