EpidemicsDeaths from Coronavirus disease – Newly Named COVID-19 -- top 1,000

Published 12 February 2020

The disease caused by novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) now has a formal name, COVID-19, and deaths in China topped 1,000 as the United States confirmed its 13th case, which involves a Wuhan evacuee who is quarantined in California. In other developments, China reported 2,478 new illnesses amid a new report that more than 500 healthcare workers have been infected in its outbreak.

The disease caused by novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) now has a formal name, COVID-19, and deaths in China topped 1,000 as the United States confirmed its 13th case, which involves a Wuhan evacuee who is quarantined in California.

In other developments, China reported 2,478 new illnesses amid a new report that more than 500 healthcare workers have been infected in its outbreak.

Disease Called COVID-19, Virus Dubbed SARS-CoV-2
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, announced the name of the disease yesterday at a media telebriefing.

He said that, under guidelines between the WHO, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), health officials had to find a name that didn’t pinpoint a geographical location, an animal, or an individual or group of people. And it has to be pronounceable and related to the disease.

In a related development yesterday, the coronavirus study group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses—which is tasked with officially classifying and naming viruses—announced that the name of the virus is SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). The group detailed the naming process in the preprint server bioRxiv.

So SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19.

UN Crisis Team Formed
CIDRAP reports that Tedros also announced that the WHO has activated a United Nations crisis management team, which will be headed by Mike Ryan, MD, who directs the WHO’s health emergencies program.  He said the team will help the WHO focus on its health mission, while other UN groups add their expertise on the wider social and economic implications of the outbreak.

Also yesterday, the WHO began a 2-day research meeting, pulling in about 400 global experts to chart a roadmap of questions that still need to be answered about the virus and the outbreak and how to go about answering them. He said drugs and vaccine are an important part of the research agenda. “The first vaccine could be ready in 18 months, so we have to do everything yesterday using the available weapons to fight this virus, while preparing for the long term,” Tedros said.