The World Health Organization had chosen a name for the disease caused by new coronavirus: COVID-19. The acronym stands for coronavirus disease 2019, as the illness was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019.
World Health Organization announced that the new name makes no reference to any of the people, places or animals associated with the coronavirus. The goal was to avoid stigma. WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement at the Global Research and Innovation Forum in Geneva today. The forum is taking place 11-12 February in Geneva, and is organized in collaboration with the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GLOPID-R). It brings together key players including leading scientists as well as public health agencies, ministries of health and research funders pursuing 2019-nCoV critical research and the development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, among other innovations.
Dr. Ghebreyesus said that “CO” stands for “corona”, “VI” for “virus” and “D” for “disease”, while “19” was for the year. He added that 1,017 people had died from the coronavirus. Most of the deaths occurred in Hubei Province.
Currently, there are 393 COVID-19 cases abroad, in a total of 24 countries.
