Highlights
•The 2019-nCoV is officially called SARS-CoV-2, and is the cause of the disease named COVID-19.
•COVID-19 is the third severe epidemic caused by coronaviruses in the past 20 years.
•It is believed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated from bats, based on genomic sequencing.
•While human strains of Coronavirus are associated with about 15% of cases of the common cold, the SARS-CoV-2 is far more deadly, with a mortality rate around 2.3%.
•As of February 19th, 2020, there have been 75,282 confirmed cases and 2012 deaths worldwide.
•Lessons learned from SARS in 2003 resulted in faster determination of the nucleic acid sequence and a more robust quarantine strategy.
•Extreme quarantine measures, including sealing off large cities, closing borders and confining people to their homes are critical to stemming spread of the virus.
•Pyroptosis, a novel form of inflammatory cell death, is a possible mechanism for the increased virulence of the SARS-CoV-2.