Limiting transmission between individuals is vital to help contain the outbreak, so here's what you can do to protect yourself.

Health experts agree that you should wash your hands regularly, thoroughly as well, with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Don't forget your thumbs.

Don't forget beneath your nails now soap and water or not available, you can use a hand sanitizer to make sure that it's a least 60% alcohol.

Do avoid close contact with anyone who is coughing or sneezing.

What you're trying to do is avoid the airborne droplets that can spread the disease.

Avoid touching your face at all.

We do this hundreds of times a day.

Avoid touching your face, but especially with unwashed hands as the virus can enter your body through your eyes, your nose and your mouth.

If you do cough or sneeze, don't do it into your hands.

Instead, use the crook of your elbow or use a tissue unless you're already sick.

Don't wear a mask.

This is important.

Wearing a mask can actually increase your risk of getting infected if you wear that mask improperly.

Individuals do have an important role to play here, but society wide measures are also gonna help stem the global spread of this virus.

While affected countries have used a range of responses, containment efforts can be effective here.

The lock down of the entire city of Wuhan is thought to have helped slow the initial spread of the virus and that bought valuable time for preparations elsewhere.

Since then, large scale quarantines have been used in some of the worst affected areas in the world, including Italy's Lombardy region.

I should point this out that large quarantines have not really been used in the United States for decades.

The world has changed a lot since then, so it is hard to know just how effective these quarantines would be today.

Restricting large gatherings of people may also help prevent the transmission of this virus.

Early detection of cases through testing, that's the key, and some countries have taken it to the next level.

For example, in China, they quickly deployed thermal monitoring technology to record temperatures and in South Korea, they pioneered further innovations like drive thru testing from providing emergency resource is an investment to building infrastructure at speed.

Governments around the world now are working to contain and then mitigate this outbreak, and the vast majority of people who contract the virus do recover.

So while novel Corona virus and the anxiety about it continue to spread, remember, there are things that can be done to fight back.