(Stephen Chen/ South China Morning Post) — Influenza could more than double the transmission rate of the coronavirus, according to new European research.
A joint study by the Max Planck Institute in Germany and Pasteur Institute in France showed that on average, a patient infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could pass Covid-19 to two other persons.
But if he or she also had the flu, it would help the coronavirus jump to four or five people, it said.
“The results were unequivocal,” said the researchers, led by German epidemiologist Dr Matthieu Domenech de Celles, in a non-peer-review paper posted on Medrxiv.org on Wednesday.
There is growing concern that a second wave of the pandemic may hit the northern hemisphere this autumn, possibly making the current coronavirus crisis even worse. (…)