Expert: Novel coronavirus may be as persistent as flu

It's possible that the novel coronavirus pneumonia could be a chronic disease that persists for a long period of time like influenza, said Wang Chen, a Chinese respiratory expert and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, in an exclusive CCTV interview on Wednesday evening.

SARS, though highly transmissible and lethal, was relatively short-lived and unlikely to sustain transmission among humans, as the virus kills its host and thus has nowhere to survive. The novel coronavirus has the possibility of being much more enduring and could coexist with humans like the flu, said Wang.

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Expert: Novel coronavirus may be as persistent as flu