Q53
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According to WHO, the official name of the virus responsible for Covid-19 disease is
- a.SARS-CoV-2
- b.Covid-19
- c.nCovid-19
- d.Corona Virus
Answer: (A) SARS-CoV-2
The virus is officially named SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2), a name given by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and used by WHO; the disease it causes is COVID-19 ('Coronavirus Disease 2019'), named by WHO on 11 February 2020. So option (B) is the disease, not the virus; '2019-nCoV' (novel coronavirus) was only the provisional name; and 'corona virus' is the whole family, which also includes SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020.