Own Correspondent|A major study in the United States has found most people who catch Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, start showing symptoms about five days after infection.

The revelation by disease analysts at Johns Hopkins University on Monday is the largest such study of known cases world-wide, Wall Street Journal reported.

“Their findings firm up estimates of the virus’s incubation period before signs of fever, coughing and respiratory distress appear, offering support for current public-health control measures that recommend a 14-day monitoring and quarantine period for people who have been exposed to infection. Some state health agencies are recommending people isolate themselves for that period after returning from any international travel,” WSJ said.

The revelation came just hours after the World Health Organization warned the new coronavirus was close to becoming a pandemic, given its spread to more than 100 countries around the globe.

“We’re reaching that point,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the agency’s health emergencies program, said in a Monday news conference. “We’re very close.”