What is the 2019 Novel Coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that can cause illness in humans. The current outbreak is caused by a new (or “novel”) strain of coronavirus, similar to the viruses that caused the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak from 2001 to 2003 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreaks from 2012 to the present time.
The virus has been named “2019-nCoV”
-
2019 refers to the year in which the first case occurred
-
n’ refers to ‘novel’
-
CoV’ refers to coronavirus
What is the source of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus?
The source of 2019 Novel Coronavirus is not yet known. Scientists think the virus began in animals. At some point, one or more humans acquired infection from an animal, and those infected humans began transmitting infection to other humans.
What are the symptoms of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus disease?
We are still learning about the characteristics of 2019-nCoV. After being infected, a person may not have any symptoms at all. Other people may have elevated body temperature (fever), cough, and/or difficulty of breathing. We do not know enough about the 2019-nCoV to know what percentage of people have no symptoms, mild symptoms, or severe symptoms.
