The 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 reporters in Geneva, explaining that “co” stood for “corona”, “vi” for “virus” and “d” for “disease”.
Meanwhile, WHO said there was a “realistic chance” of stopping a deadly virus originating from China that has killed more than 1,000 people.
“If we invest now… we have a realistic chance of stopping this outbreak,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.
AFP