Coronavirus Latest Updates: WHO Officially Names the Disease "COVID-19"


On February 11, 2020, WHO made the announcement via Twitter. It will spell as: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine – COVID-19" This style will give scientists a standard format for referring to new coronavirus diseases in future years.

In a paper posted to the bioRxiv preprint server, the new virus coronavirus was named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The Committee’s study group on coronaviruses explains that this term underscores the new virus’ similarity to the SARS virus identified in 2003.

If you still don`t understand the difference between COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2, think about the difference between AIDS and HIV. The first is for the disease, and the second is for the virus itself.




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