Deadly event that led to coronavirus getting its name - COVID-19
The novel Coronavirus may have spread its wings through the medium of bats initially, but since then it has jumped from one species to another and is now taking a heavy toll on humans.
The novel Coronavirus may have spread its wings through the medium of bats initially, but since then it has jumped from one species to another and is now taking a heavy toll on humans. This jump by a disease from one species to the other is a fraught event. So, since first appearing in China, it has affected around a million people globally and the number is expected to go further northward. As many as 50,000 people have died from it. The very fact that it is 'novel' is the reason why it is so deadly. People have virtually no immunity against it and it takes time for them to recover. However, for people who already have pre-existing dieases like diabetes or asthma, coronavirus is deadly.
Yes, this virus strain is novel, but it is part of the larger coronavirus family and it has a specific name. This coronavirus strain has been named COVID-19. But, you might like to know why we call it COVID-19.
Well, the nomenclature was picked by a Chinese scientist who classified this deadly Chinese virus as 'novel coronavirus of 2019.' So, in short, it became COVID-19. This COVID-19 name of the virus indicates that the virus causing pandemic was first recognised among humans in the year 2019. The virus spread into humans from the seafood market in Wuhan, China.
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The deadly virus SARS that hit the headlines in 2002-03 had infected 8,098 number of people and had killed 774 people worldwide was also a Coronavirus. In 2012 MERS, we saw the same impact worldwide where the virus responsible for a mass pandemic was also from the Coronavirus family. So, Coronavirus still lingers through various family members available in its family. This time we are coming across novel COVID-19 as it became visible to the humans in the year 2019 and the virus responsible for the pandemic this time also belongs to the Coronavirus family. It emerged from a non-human but now has the biggest impact on humans worldwide.
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03:27 PM IST