The World Health Organization has renamed the pandemic disease coronavirus which was initially called as 2019-ncov got the official name as Covid-19.
Today morning, there were 42,708 confirmed cases reported in China.
“We now have a name for the disease and it’s Covid-19,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. The virus was designated as SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
“We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease,” the WHO chief said.
The scientist from around the world is looking into various methods and application to discuss ways to combat this pandemic disease.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
“We now have a name for the #2019nCoV disease:
COVID-19.
I’ll spell it: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine – COVID-19″
–@DrTedros #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/Kh0wx2qfzk
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 11, 2020
The name is taken from the words “corona”, “virus”, “disease” and “2019”. Dr Tedros explains in twitter, “Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing. It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks.”
He added that “CO” stands for “corona”, “VI” for “virus” and “D” for “disease”, while “19” was for the year, as the outbreak was first identified on December 31.
As per 2015 guideline, WHO is against place name for a disease like Ebola and Zika based on the origin place of the disease. Also, generic names are avoided like “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome” or “Spanish flu”
Also, Check the previously unknown facts of coronavirus as per WHO guidelines
