COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 10 June

1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

2. WHO says people are most infectious when they first feel ill

Studies show people with COVID-19 are most likely to infect others when they first start to feel unwell, the World Health Organization said on 9 June.

Dr. Mike Ryan explained that it's easier to transmit droplets because, unlike SARS and MERS, where the virus is in the lower respiratory tract, the novel coronavirus lodges in the upper respiratory tract.

“Now as we look at COVID-19, we have an infectious pathogen that is present in the upper airway for which the viral loads are peaking at the time you are just beginning to get sick,” he said.

“That means you could be in the restaurant feeling perfectly well and start to get a fever, you are feeling OK, you didn’t think to stay home, but that’s the moment at which your viral load could be actually quite high,” he said.

Ryan said it explained why the disease was so contagious and hard to contain.

3. How the COVID-19 recovery could be the "vaccine" for climate change

Governments, business and society must collaborate to avoid future social and economic crises, say María Mendiluce, CEO of We Mean Business, and the Wellcome Trust's Jose Siri. The three actions needed now are:

1. Adopt science-based net-zero strategies. These will address health and climate risks, create a 100% clean-energy system, accelerate the transition to zero-carbon mobility, and build the zero-carbon heavy industries of the future, creating jobs.

2. Better account for and address current and future health risks. Global health security frameworks must encompass all hazards, including those arising from climate change. Collective, committed planning and prevention for global threats across all nations of the world and all stakeholder domains must be fostered.

3. Redesign cities for better lives. In the post-pandemic era, we must rethink urban design, planning and management and our relationships to urban systems. Stimulus responses to COVID-19 must point the way to cities in which all citizens have access to security and opportunity, and they must put health at the heart of urban life.