COVID-19 project
Coronavirus, named due to the "crown" like appearance of its surface projections, was first isolated from chickens in 1937. The etiological agent, a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), named for the similarity of its symptoms to those induced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome, causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is a virus identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China. On March 12, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.