he World Health Organisation on Tuesday said “Covid-19” would be the new official name for the deadly Coronavirus that was first identified in China on December 31.
“We now have a name for the disease and it’s Covid-19,” WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told journalists in Geneva, Switzerland, explaining that “co” stood for “corona”, “vi” for “virus” and “d” for “disease”.
The global health body, according to AFP, said there was a “realistic chance” of stopping the deadly virus originating from China that has killed more than 1,000 people.
🚨 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
“If we invest now, we have a realistic chance of stopping this outbreak,” Ghebreyesus said.
