Now.

We asked you what you wanted to know about the disease, the illness, and we've been inundated with questions.

And here to answer them is Professor Ramon Shaban, who is the clinical chair off infection prevention and disease control at Sydney University.

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and speak to us.

Of course, Professor, there's there's a lot of panic over this.

There's a lot of information out there to sift through for for many people, and one of the questions we want to get straight into is the question of immunity.

This is the a lot of, you know, a lot of the questions that we got basically said, If you get Corona virus, do you then build immunity?

And so you can't get a current of Iris again at this stage, we're not exactly sure we're very early on into this outbreak, but it would appear that this outbreak this infection behaves like most other respiratory viruses.

So so we would anticipate that people who have the infection will develop some sort of immune response.

Another question we've got in from Hugh is How long is this outbreak going to last?

I mean, is that black asking How long is a piece of string, or do we have an indication we would expect that this will go on for some months?

Over time, as countries experienced more and more cases, as we've seen in Italy in South Korea, wth the infection will be War will sustain within communities over some months to come.

A Su has written into ensues from Brisbane.

And she asks, At what point do I pull my immune compromised teen out of school on a part time job?

Already we've seen his school, some staffs and students being asked a self isolate because we've had a boy that was infected.

So talk to us about this.

It's very important that if anybody has any other medical conditions that their first talk to their doctor with this particular case, no little Indian conditions are the same.

So the first port of call is Ask your doctor, seek advice about their specific care plan and then take action according to what the doctor then does.

So this question is from Jane in Sydney, she said.

What happens if one family member contracts the virus?

Should other family members stay in quarantine at home, too?

Or should they maybe stay somewhere else for a while?

Yes, a family will need to make some sort of arrangement so often it might be useful to place that person into one of the bedrooms to limit interaction with in that household.

If somebody in that household is unwell to have other conditions, then make like to make other arrangements for the period of incubation.

But it's important that families do begin to plan now.

Family planning for an outbreak should occur now.

What would we do if mom becomes unwell?

What we do if in the day becomes unwell.

If you know the first born son who's in Grade nine at school becomes and, well, how do we care for him?

I would.

X two weeks.

Planning is vital at this point in time, in terms of self isolation.

Just that mean, you know, you said that if one family member is ill, isolate them in a particular room.

But what about the rest of the family?

And you know these the's a really simple questions like, Well, what if we all share the same air conditioning?

Does that mean that we're all gonna be infected?

Yes.

And that's that actress to family planning.

So Family's household should plan for these kinds of processes.

It will inevitably involve making temporary arrangements to stay with friends, stay with other relatives in that space.

The key to this is planning.

The infection is here.

It's here to stay for quite some time.

We're not going to be able to contain it, a CZ we've heard from many experts around the world.

And so when affections do rice like this, we need to plan for the eventuality that everyone's going to get this infection that everyone has the same risks by families can plan.

Communities can plan.

Neighbors can plan.

What do we do if you know the elderly friend who lives next door?

He lives by, you know by by herself gets it.

How will we support her?

That's vital in any of these kinds of outbreaks.

Alex from Perth.

His understanding is it takes 15 minutes of face to face contact to catch Corona virus.

So his question is, can he head down to the local coffee shop.

Get himself self a coffee?

Is he going to be exposed?

If someone has correct, the short answer is no.

So that 15 minutes is is our It's a guideline.

If Alex has Corona virus, Alex should stay home.

Follow advice.

Alex can go outside in his local courtyard, but he's not advised to go outside to cafes stuck in our shopping centers because that's very infections.

Doing fact spread.

Talia, who's riding in from Hobart, and I think this is a very important question here.

What are the risks to pregnant women?

What will happen?

Even expectant mother is infected.

Happening.

Similarly, this is very early on in this outbreak.

Uh, pregnant woman should also stick at vast from the treating physician from the treating obstetrician because they may have other conditions which warrant for the investigation.

As we've said all along, first, seek medical advice for your own specific circumstance.

You know when you say, seek medical advice.

You know, yesterday we were talking to a couple of doctors basically said that GPS.

They're also quite concerned that they may catch, you know, Corona viruses.

So when you say seek advice, would you advise people to call ahead of time, just present themselves.

There are a range of mechanisms.

First is to call your local GP.

People can ring the 1 800 healthdirect number, which is a freak all across Australia.

They can contact the local hospital by phone.

There are a range of measures which don't require physical presentation, to seek advice two for one, and to seek advice about what they can or can't do prior to attend the practice.

In that, in that kind of way, Aaron from Sydney, has also asked about how this might affect pits and animals.

So if you've got the Corona virus and you're isolating at home, should you send your pit somewhere else?

It's unlikely that Pits will in fact, contract Runner, I said in actual fact, Friend of ours is an animal based infection.

Originally, it says what they called a zero knows it.

So we've got no evidence to build twos to suspect that my dog and my cat will catch Karen device if I have credit bars.

Uh, this is one.

I don't know where it's come from, really?

What recipes would you recommend when using toilet paper?

Get these questions.

We don't wear those kinds of questions that come through.

It's like But, you know, we don't need to stockpile toilet paper.

Well, that's yes.

What's what's important is that people take good precautions to think about what they might need.

For a 14 day period we have home delivery service is in Australia.

We have very strong fruit supplier transit in Australia.

Panic buying does not help anybody in effect.

What it does do it can and and does compromise people who may need support surfaces and resources when they go to the shop and they don't have them when they're there.

So it requires some sense of moderation.

We've also got some questions about people coming in from overseas, so Jen is wondering why we aren't quarantining all incoming travelers for 14 days.

But we've also got a question about the details of testing because this person understands that the U.

S.

Has had some issues with testing.

So what about traveler's coming in from the decision to invite travel bans on countries, especially a range of factors?

But importantly, one of those factors is the strength of the individual countries public health system, so economies in high income countries tend to have very strong public health systems.

On DSO, we're rely upon the veracity of their systems to detect infections in that kind of way.

Other countries do not.

And so in some instances we have to invoke some trouble bands around those countries.

Now you're a huge advocate for trying to get a plan in place, particularly for families.

It's absolutely vital that Family's house sells.

Think about options of what about what to do If something becomes on well, what do you do if Mom becomes unwell, Dad becomes unwell.

One of the Children becomes a mill who looks after the shopping, who looks after the grand parents.

Family planning is very important, so I'm suggesting to people, Sit down with your families with your households, have a discussion.

Think about options as to who will do what over what period of time in the coming weeks and months ahead.

How do they know what to include in that plan?

Is there way that away?

They can seek advice on whether you know, for example, if you've got if you've got kids with one of them, you know if one of them contracts Corona virus.

There is an enormous range of information available for households, families on a range of government websites.

The federal government has a range of fact sheets about what to do when the each state in territory have also similar factory.

It's an advice, and of course, you can ring the health direct number.

There's a national number to ring.

It's it's tall, toll free tow.

Ask questions about all of these kinds of issues.

Absolutely.

One of the questions that we got a little earlier, too, was a question about Well, how do you self isolate?

You know, and we're talking about family planning here, So let's just say there's a child that's contracted.

Current virus FF family members corrected current affairs.

So this self isolating in the same house, or should they be moved to somewhere else at a different house, families will be provided a vast by the local public health unit on, they'll be asked Tiu to consider is the best too rearranged household for a period of time.

In other words, can some folks stay with with families with family, friends or relatives?

And so it depends on the locus locus circumstance.

But in a household unit.

If somebody does have Corona virus disease, they should stay within one room of the house, sleep in one room of the house.

Others should not sleeping in that same room and try to minimize their interactions.

Asbestos what they can.

But this this is where the whole issue of close contacts comes in as well.

A lot of people are very concerned about this, and there's a lot of misinformation about this, you know, earlier on we had this question off.

Well, if I go to a coffee shop and can I get current virus from a barista?

But you're more likely to get a Corona virus from a family member because that's close.

Contact.

Correct.

So So we're going to a coffee shop To get a coffee is a low risk activity because it goes to a whole range of factors, including the length of time we spend.

But others who may be affected whether not you shake hands, touch them close enough to to droplets move on via the year.

So, in general terms, it goes back to making sure that we can break the chain off infection and, in other words, use good level of alcohol based hand sanitizer if you are unwell and you have been sent home on home on home quarantine for Corona virus using a mask tiu limit.

The spread of droplets is a really important, effective measure.

And so these are basic measures that patients are advised by public health units around the country.

We've got a question in from Gavin, and he wants to know where the virus survives on surfaces and if so, how long.

Grain of rice is an ivory hardy.

In other words, they don't tend to survive on a service for very long, and they are easily destroyed using really basic, commercially grade disinfectants from any sort of supermarket.

Eso without those disinfectants, How long would it last time?

Not very long, unusual terms.

So was if If if, If that's okay, Miles has written in about a question that's quite close to my heart.

I take public transport quite a lot as well on.

I remember being on the bus yesterday, just thinking am I sitting here and endangering myself by touching all these surfaces that are here?

So, Miles says, can the virus be transmitted on planes and buses between passengers um firstly, through the surface and through the corners.

This infection spread by contact and droplet transmission.

So if wth e infection is on a surface such as a hand rail or a seat or a tray table, and then you wipe that service and rub your face or rub your eye.

That's how infection does a code.

So if you can break that china by using a wop to decontaminate the surface before you interact with that, that's the way to go.

So carrying a knuckle best hand rub is important, and the regular use of that hand rub so that if whatever gets onto your hands is destroyed, will protect you.

Miles also wanted to know about that 14 day recommendation recommended isolation period and whether that is long enough, always sure, yes.

So based on the evidence that we have to date and this is increasingly strong, the incubation period goes up to 14 days.

For the vast majority of patients, it's less than that.

But it's our about the unlimited, certainly 14 days, Richard wrote in to ask Why the panic buying surely isolation for 14 days?

You don't need to panic by Yeah, we think that panic buying is a symptom off, perhaps the lack of family planning around an outbreak on DSO.

It's important that people take measures to to deal with everyday life activities, such as stalking the house with food stuffs.

But if we have affected, if you have a plan around what we can get access to when that will leave, yet the need to perhaps panic by and to, you know, stock their households with more stuff than we might need for 14 days.

So it goes back to to family planning.

So if somebody who does do the majority of the shopping for the household becomes unwell, how do we then organize to get food stuffs are stocked with house?

Who will do that?