COVID-19/Coronavirus is the name of the disease, its official Chinese name is “冠狀病毒病 / 新冠肺炎”, which is a new type of coronavirus and the disease it causes; while SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus, which is severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus. People often know the name of a disease, but not the virus that causes it.
Viruses and the diseases they cause often go by different names because they have different processes and purposes. Viruses are named according to their genetic structure to facilitate the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and drugs, and virologists and the wider scientific community do this work, so viruses are named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Diseases are named to discuss prevention, transmission, contagiousness, severity and treatment of diseases. The prevention and response of human diseases is the responsibility of WHO, so diseases are officially named by WHO in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
ICTV announced on February 11, 2020, “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” as the name of the new virus, chosen because of its connection to the virus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak. Coronaviruses are genetically related, and while related, the two viruses are different. On 11 February 2020, WHO announced “COVID-19” as the name for the new disease, based on previous guidance developed with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
