Originally published in unicef.org on 28 April 2020

COVID-19 (sometimes called ‘Coronavirus’) is a disease caused by the novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. It has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) — ‘CO’ stands for corona, ‘VI’ for virus, and ‘D’ for disease. COVID-19 is a new virus linked to the same family of viruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and some types of common cold.

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