ABSTRACT
In December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia incidents was reported in the city of Wuhan, China. Some of the early cases of the transmission were reported to have started from a seafood and live animal market in Wuhan. Investigations revealed that the disease is caused by a newly discovered member of the coronavirus family. The disease was named as COVID-19. The disease first spread within China and then to the rest of the world, which includes 216 countries, their areas, or territories. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020. This chapter discusses the origin, history, classification, nomenclature of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, behavior, and mode of transmission of coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-2).
