In December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia of unknown etiology was detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. The first 27 reported cases were all related to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which sells aquatic products, live poultries, and wild animals [1]. The first batch of cases identified later showed no exposure or even no relation to Huanan Wholesale Market, and the human-to-human transmission was confirmed; moreover, nosocomial infections were reported in some health care workers [2,3,4]. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Chinese health authorities later identified and announced that a new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was accountable for the outbreak of this pneumonia in Wuhan [5]. Thereafter, this disease was named Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) by World Health Organization (WHO), and the causative virus was designated as SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses [6]. Within one and a half months, as of midnight of 18 February 2020, the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) had spread from Hubei to 34 provinces in China and another 25 countries, resulting in 75,199 confirmed cases with 2009 deaths (Table 1) [7]. At present, the number of cases is increasing rapidly in China and even around the world, which is a big threat to public health. Thirty-one provinces of China have initiated a level-1 public health response. The aim of this article is to provide a timely review of the characteristics of the COVID-19 outbreak including the epidemiology, pathogenicity, clinical features, and measures of treatment, prevention, and control for this disease.