The virus that causes COVID-19. It is an example of a coronavirus.
It is named SARS-CoV-2 because of its similarity to the earlier virus SARS-CoV, responsible for the SARS disease.
This virus was formerly known as
2019-nCoV, meaning "
2019 novel coronavirus", before being assigned the present name by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
This virus is a positive-sense
single-stranded RNA virus.
Johnathan: Hey bro, what's your favorite virus?
Chuck: SARS-CoV-2 bro, it's the coolest virus around.
Johnathan: That's
lame bro, I prefer the
OG.