This is from abc.net.au which discusses transmissions without...

This is from abc.net.au which discusses transmissions without symptoms:


Dominic Dwyer, a medical virologist at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, also pointed out that people usually sat next to their friends and family at restaurants and the only risk would be if they were sick.

"Generally, we say you've got to be within a metre or two, perhaps a bit more, of people with a disease to catch it," said Dr Dwyer, who is also a professor at Sydney University.

"It doesn't make sense to think that you could get infected in the restaurant when the infection, as far as we're aware, isn't in the community."

But reports that the virus could spread during the 14-day incubation period — even if the individual wasn't showing symptoms — have heightened anxiety in the Chinese community.

Dr Dwyer said while the incubation period could be up to two weeks, it was in fact usually around five or six days.

"They're incubating the disease … they don't have a cough, they don't have a sneeze, they don't have a runny nose, then they're not transmitting the infection," he said.

"There is some debate that perhaps you can spread the virus before you get symptoms, but there's still some debate about that, that's not what normally happens with most other respiratory infections.

"For the most part … you're generally shedding the virus when you're symptomatic.