National, state and local government officials have enacted stay-at-home orders in an effort to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus known as COVID-19.

Dr. Neale Chumbler, dean of the College of Health and Public Service at the University of North Texas, said the coronavirus is transmitted when people are in close contact with one another.

The only way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and thus, to contain it, is for people to stay home, he said.

“The coronavirus has a silent incubation period,” Chumbler said. “It is believed to have approximately a five-day incubation period, followed by a period of mild symptoms that can be mistakenly identified as a cold.”