A thread of comparisons between seasonal flu and Covid-19 as per the World Health Organisation:

1. Both seasonal influenza, which is itself a type of coronavirus, and the coronavirus that causes COVID cause respiratory disease, whether it's pneumonia, bronchitis etc...

2. Both influenza and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 spread similarly, that is from small droplets of fluid from the nose and mouth of an infected person

3. Based on current data, the 2019 coronavirus does not transmit as efficiently as influenza because with this novel coronavirus, you have to be sick to transmit it to the next person. Whereas with influenza infected people who are not yet sick are major drivers of transmission

4. Except for people who have been infected and then recovered, the majority of people have not yet built-up immunity to the 2019 coronavirus flu, compared to all previous ("common flu") viruses

5. COVID-19 appears to cause a more severe respiratory disease in certain people (older people, smokers and men) than other flus, even though, according to an editorial by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the death rate is likely similar to flu

6. In South Africa, flu season lasts about 19 weeks, starting from late April lasting until mid-September or so, and kills up to 12 000 people every year which is 0.1% of people infected, as per the Department of Health.

7. Currently, in SA 1.6% of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have died. However this is bcos many mild-symptom or symptom-free cases are not detected, which increases the perceived death %, and unlike flu, "COVID deaths" include people who did not die because of COVID

8. Though early data showed that COVID is more contagious than flu, the actual risk of infection isn’t any higher, it’s simply about the spread being quicker, according to Orly Vardeny of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System & University of Minnesota.

Sources: https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---3-march-2020

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387

https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-vs-flu.html

https://lunginstitute.co.za/2020/03/04/new-tb-meningitis-test-beats-the-rest-3/