The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced an official name for the coronavirus on Tuesday: Covid-19.
At the end of December 2019, the virus broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and has already claimed over 1,000 lives, mainly in China, according to the Belga press agency.
The new name had to be "easy to pronounce", but at the same time could not make a "stigmatising" reference to a geographical location, a person or a group of people or an animal. The name also had to refer to the virus itself, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, reports NBCnews.
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The term 'coronavirus' actually refers to a group of viruses, which includes a common cold, but also the SARS virus, which causes the severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
