Climate activist Greta Thunberg said 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.

Thunberg wrote in a social media post that she and her father had both shown symptoms of COVID-19 infection. "It’s extremely likely that I’ve had it, given the combined symptoms and circumstances," she wrote.

She added on Instagram that she stayed inside and self-isolated for the past two weeks, though she had not been tested for the virus.

"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.

Thunberg added: "But it also shows one thing: That once we are in a crisis, we can act to do something quickly, act fast. 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."