The deadly coronavirus that has shaken the world has been officially named “Covid-19” by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to a report in
Free Malaysia Today, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in explaining the decision said that “co” stands for “corona”, “vi” for “virus” and “d” for “disease”.
New name to avoid stigmatisation
Quoting AFP, the report said the name was chosen to avoid references to a specific geographical location, animal species or group of people, in line with international recommendations for naming to prevent stigmatisation.
Prior to this, the virus was temporarily named the “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”.
According to the latest situation report by WHO (dated 11 February), there are a total of 43,103 confirmed cases of Covid-19 globally.
A total of 7,333 people have been classified as having a severe case of Covid-19 while a total of 1,018 people have died so far.