Greta Thunberg Says It’s ‘Extremely Likely’ She Was Infected With the Coronavirus

“I almost didn’t feel ill. My last cold was much worse than this! Had it not been for someone else having the virus (simultaneously) I might not even have suspected anything,” she said.

“We who don’t belong to a risk group have an enormous responsibility, our actions can be the difference between life and death for many others.Please keep that in mind, follow the advice from experts and your local authorities and #StayAtHome to slow the spread of the virus.”

Thunberg said on Tuesday the swift and far-ranging economic and social shifts being brought in to stem the coronavirus pandemic showed that the rapid action needed to curb climate change was also possible.

“The coronavirus is a terrible event … there is no positive to come out of it,” the Swedish teenager told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an online interview.

“But it also shows one thing: That once we are in a crisis, we can act to do something quickly, act fast,” said Thunberg, 17, whose solo school strikes for climate action helped spark a global youth climate strike movement.

“Though it must be in a different way to how we have acted in this case, we can act fast and change our habits and treat a crisis like a crisis.”

COVID-19 has so far infected nearly 400,000 people globally with more than 17,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus resource center.

The virus crisis “doesn’t mean we need to let go completely of activism,” according to Thunberg.

“We can do it online and at home. We just need to be creative and find new ways,” she said.

MORE: Greta Thunberg Says Coronavirus Pandemic Proves Her Brand of Climate Change Activism Works

(Reuters contributed to this report.)