For starters: This text is not an attempt to downplay the seriousness of the new corona virus, which primarily threatens our old and those who are already sick, as well as anyone who needs care if the health care system becomes overloaded.

But there are also positive signs that deserve to be lifted.

Most people get well

About 80 percent of those infected with the virus experience mild symptoms, such as fever and cough, according to a large study from China, which also indicates that younger and fully healthy people do not have such severe symptoms. Above all, it is the elderly, over the age of 80, and people with other serious health problems who are at risk of being hit hard and who therefore need to protect society.

But the vast majority of people affected by the new corona virus recover. At present, more than half of all those who are ill have been declared healthy.

Mortality is likely to decline

The death toll from Italy's outbreak is currently a record six per cent. But just dividing the number of deaths by the number of infected ones does not give a fair picture of how deadly the corona virus is. This is according to Sergio Brusin, expert at the European Disease Protection Agency ECDC's crisis and command center.

- Many who have received a mild variant of the disease are not yet included in the statistics. The more mild cases detected and recorded are likely to cause mortality to decline, but significantly more data is needed before we know for sure, he says.

South Korea has tested over 200,000 people and also found many mild cases, which mean that total mortality is currently estimated at 0.77 percent, which according to ECDC may be a clue as to how a major outbreak would hit Europe.

China seems to have gained control of the outbreak

Although China was unable to stop the virus from spreading across the world, it now seems to have overcome its own outbreak. There, the number of people recovering from the disease has exceeded the number who fall ill and fewer and fewer new cases of illness are reported. Many have criticized the country's draconian measures, like quarantining millions of people, and questioned whether China's success in fighting the virus would be feasible in any other country. But when the World Health Organization WHO evaluated China's actions, it is not primarily the quarantine, but rapid infection detection and isolation of the sick, which are highlighted as the most important measures.

In South Korea, too, the number of cases of infection has decreased in recent days, which may be a sign that it is possible to limit the spread of the virus without coercive measures. Preliminary disease data from the country shows that mortality is extremely low among people under 60. Of the more than 6,000 infected, only eight deaths have been recorded. However, the death toll rises sharply in the older part of the population and is up seven percent among people older than 80 years.

So far, the virus does not appear to be more dangerous

It has been just over ten weeks since the first cases of lung disease caused by a new virus were reported to the World Health Organization. Because China quickly shared what they knew about the virus's build-up, researchers were able to quickly record a working test to detect disease cases and launch studies to find a working vaccine.

Björn Olsen, professor of infectious diseases at Uppsala University, says there has never been so much data on a virus in such a short time. He believes that China's measures to limit the outbreak have gained valuable time for the rest of the world to prepare us, and that the virus has so far shown no signs of mutating and becoming more dangerous.

The fact that the new corona virus is currently causing major problems and causes many people to suffer is because it is a completely new virus that no one in the population is yet immune to.

“Right now it is nasty, but it will calm down. The virus will become part of our normal virus flora that we encounter every now and then. Many will not even notice it, ”says Björn Olsen.