To control COVID-19, China implemented unprecedentedly strict public health measures. According to the National Health Commission of China, the total number of cases continued to rise sharply in early February at an average rate of more than 3,000 newly confirmed cases per day. The outbreak of COVID-19 in China reached an epidemic peak in February. On 11 February, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the novel coronavirus ‘SARS-CoV-2’, and the WHO named the disease ‘COVID-19’ (ref. On 30 January, the WHO declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern 16. The number of confirmed cases suddenly increased, with thousands of new cases diagnosed daily during late January 15. Within 1 month, it had spread massively to all 34 provinces of China. This novel coronavirus pneumonia soon spread to other cities in Hubei province and to other parts of China. As the outbreak coincided with the approach of the lunar New Year, travel between cities before the festival facilitated virus transmission in China. All these cases provided clear evidence for human-to-human transmission of the new virus 4, 12, 13, 14. Several familial clusters of infection were reported, and nosocomial infection also occurred in health-care facilities. Later, more patients with no history of exposure to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market were identified. The first genome sequence of the novel coronavirus was published on the Virological website on 10 January, and more nearly complete genome sequences determined by different research institutes were then released via the GISAID database on 12 January 7. On 9 January 2020, the result of this etiological identification was publicly announced (Fig. Furthermore, we will discuss the clinical and epidemiological features, diagnosis of and countermeasures against COVID-19.īy metagenomic RNA sequencing and virus isolation from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples from patients with severe pneumonia, independent teams of Chinese scientists identified that the causative agent of this emerging disease is a betacoronavirus that had never been seen before 6, 10, 11. On the basis of recently published findings, this comprehensive Review covers the basic biology of SARS-CoV-2, including the genetic characteristics, the potential zoonotic origin and its receptor binding. In this Review, we summarize the current understanding of the nature of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. The ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 has posed an extraordinary threat to global public health 4, 5.
It has overwhelmingly surpassed SARS and MERS in terms of both the number of infected people and the spatial range of epidemic areas. Being highly transmissible, this novel coronavirus disease, also known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has spread fast all over the world 2, 3. At the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus designated as SARS-CoV-2 emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, and caused an outbreak of unusual viral pneumonia. In 20, respectively, two highly pathogenic coronaviruses with zoonotic origin, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), emerged in humans and caused fatal respiratory illness, making emerging coronaviruses a new public health concern in the twenty-first century 1. Coronaviruses are a diverse group of viruses infecting many different animals, and they can cause mild to severe respiratory infections in humans.
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