Coronavirus: The differences between coronavirus, COVID-19, and SARS-CoV-2 explained

JA
Updated March 23 2020 - 9:59pm, first published March 20 2020 - 11:30am
A microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19. Picture: Wikipedia/ NIAID Rocky Mountain Laboratories.
A microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19. Picture: Wikipedia/ NIAID Rocky Mountain Laboratories.

Although the word 'coronavirus' is often used as a blanket term for the illness that is rapidly spreading around the world - declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11 - the term is frequently used loosely. Here is a run-down of the differences as explained by the WHO.

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JA

Jolyon Attwooll

Journalist

Reporter at the Ballarat Courier. Ex-Londoner and former commissioning editor at The Telegraph (the UK broadsheet, not the Sydney tabloid).

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