COVID-19

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that causes diseases such as the common cold, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The viruses can also be transmitted from animals to humans. A new or novel coronavirus (nCoV) is any strain that’s newly identified in humans—but health experts have already identified several strains of coronavirus that are in animals but have not yet jumped to humans. Although we may have already known about a “new coronavirus” in an animal, it is still new in a sense because the previous version of the virus could not jump to humans. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the most recent novel coronavirus.