OREANDA-NEWS. Professor of the University of Florida, World Health Organization (WHO) adviser Ira Longini expressed the opinion that two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants may be infected with the new COVID-19 virus. The epidemiologist says, this forecast is based on statistical data, according to which each infected person transfers the coronavirus to two or three people.

Longini also noted that quarantines can only slow down the spread of the virus, but not stop it, since COVID-19 went outside China before the introduction of these measures.

Longini’s opinion is shared by Gabriel Leung, professor of the University of Hong Kong, who also believes that the disease can affect two-thirds of humanity.

At the same time, Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London calculated that only in China, up to 50 thousand people can be infected every day.