The World Health Organisation on Tuesday said ‘Covid-19’ would be the new official name for the deadly coronavirus.
The virus, which was first identified in China on December 31, has claimed over 1,000 lives.
WHO head, Tedros Ghebreyesus, told journalists in Geneva, Switzerland: “We now have a name for the disease and it’s Covid-19.”
He explained that ‘co’ stood for ‘corona’, ‘vi’ for ‘virus’ while ‘d’ for ‘disease’.
The WHO is currently hosting an international scientific conference in Geneva that will look at possible vaccine options to combat the virus.
The health body had earlier given the virus the temporary name of ‘2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease’ and China’s National Health Commission this week said it was temporarily calling it ‘novel coronavirus pneumonia’ or NCP.
