How Contagious is the Coronavirus?

Germany has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus with a man from the Starnberg area of Bavaria falling ill. The authorities still believe the risk of the virus spreading in the country remains low and the patient involved is isolated and at home. It is difficult to say how contagious the virus actually is but a recent WHO estimate published in Der Spiegel assumes there will be 1.4 to 2.5 newly infected people per sick individual. Der Spiegel states that such data is unreliable as it is dependent on too many factors such as the activity of the sick people involved. The following infographic provides an overview of the average number of new infections for different forms of disease based on the data reported by Der Spiegel.