Studies found that patients were still potentially infectious eight days after symptoms appeared but that the risk was lower after about ten days.

But this leaves tens of thousands of potentially infectious people free to get close to others.

The programme features reports of contact tracers with nothing to do and technical problems that prevent workers from logging on or contacting potentially infectious people.

Television bulletins feature warnings about the potentially infectious activities of individual coronavirus patients.

As the waters recede, tremendous amounts of potentially infectious debris will add to the problem; this includes uncollected garbage and dead animals.