Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that can infect animals or humans. In humans, several strains of viruses are known to cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to severe diseases such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered strain is called SARS-CoV-2 strain that is causing COVID19 as it is similar to the SARS-CoV strain that had caused the SARS outbreak.

• MERS is caused by MERS-CoV SARS is caused by SARS-CoV.
• COVID19 is caused by Novel SARS-CoV-2.