For an infectious agent that has led to the deaths of more than 2.4 million people, it is worth noting that all the SARS-CoV-2 virus particles circulating in the world right now could easily fit inside a soft drink can.

Using global rates of new infections with the pandemic disease, coupled with estimations of viral load, mathematician Dr Kit Yates (PhD) calculated there are around two quintillion — or two billion billion — SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in the world at any one time.