Coronavirus officially named #COVID-19 from #2019nCoV by the World Health Organisation

The  new name is COVID-19 which stands for coronavirus disease that was discovered in the year 2019. Previously it was named 2019 novel coronavirus (2019nCoV). 

The Director (@DrTedros) of WHO said, “Under agreed guidelines between the World Health Organisation (@WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (@OIEAnimalHealth) and Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (@FAO), we had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease.”

I will applaud the Tripartite for this move which will ensure that counties/regions are not stigmatized based on names given to pathogens. This makes me wonder, why not rename MERS-CoV as well? 

More information about the coronavirus on how to protect yourself, myth-busters, travel advice, situation reports, technical gudiance and Q&A can be found on the World Health Organisation website at this link: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019