Coronavirus experts think that it’s likely that the novel coronavirus originated in an animal species, and then spread to humans.

Person to person spread of the novel coronavirus is occurring, but it is not yet understood how easily this happens.

Human coronavirus strains are spread from person to person through contaminated droplets from a person who is sick with the illness (through coughing or sneezing) or contaminated hands, and generally occurs between people who are close contacts with one another. It is likely this novel coronavirus spreads the same way.