Coronavirus FINALLY has a name: World health chiefs label the deadly SARS-like disease ‘COVID-19’ – six weeks after the outbreak that has killed more than 1,000 people began
- World Health Organization director Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus announced the name
- He said it represents the phrase ‘coronavirus disease 2019’
- Experts created a name without referencing any animals, places or people
- More than 43,000 people have now been infected and a total of 1,018 have died
The coronavirus causing a deadly outbreak in China has been named COVID-19, the World Health Organization has announced.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the global body, announced the new name at a conference in Geneva this afternoon.
It comes almost six weeks after the virus was first identified in the city of Wuhan, China, in late December.
Since then it has infected more than 43,000 people and killed 1,018.
More to follow
Coronaviruses are so named because their structure has jagged edges which look like a royal crown – corona is crown in Latin (Pictured, an illustration of the COVID-19 virus released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, announced the name of the virus at a conference in Geneva today