CoVs are a large family of single-stranded RNA viruses that infect humans primarily through droplets and fomites. Before December 2019, there were 6 known human CoVs, including the alpha-CoVs, HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-229E, and the beta-CoVs, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1, severe acute respiratory syndrome-COV (SARS-CoV) and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV).2 The recently identified COVID-19 is a beta-CoV that infects both humans and animals. All 3 of these novel viruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and COVID-19) originate from zoonotic transmission. Bats may have served as the source of SARS-CoV and COVID-19 based on sequence similarity with bat CoVs. Camels are suspected to have been the zoonotic host for transmission of MERS-CoV.