Although scientists are racing to find a cure for the virus, there's a chance COVID-19 will never fully go away — with or without a vaccine.

Researchers from Hong Kong University of Public health reveal the coronavirus is up to 100 times more infectious through the eyes and airways than Sars, explaining the ‘higher transmissibility’ of COVID-19, compared with the 2003 contagion.

In ways big and small, the coronavirus battering China and triggering fears of a global pandemic shares key hallmarks with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) of 2002-03 — even as the current outbreak’s effects have become deadlier and farther-reaching.    

While we are learning more about the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) daily, questions are being raised about its rapid spread. One possibility is that this development could be related to climatic conditions, CNA citied opinions of Assistant Professor Jyoti Somani and NUS and Professor Paul Ananth Tambyah from Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

China on Sunday (Jan 5) said a mysterious viral pneumonia outbreak that has affected 59 people was not SARS or MERS, AFP reported.