COVIR INITIATIVE POWERED
INTRODUCTION TO COVIR Coronaviruses are named for the spikes that protrude from their surfaces, resembling a crown or the sun’s corona. They can infect both animals and people, and can cause illnesses of the respiratory tract. At least four types of coronaviruses cause very mild infections every year, like the common cold. Most people get infected with one or more of these viruses at some point in their lives. Another coronavirus that circulated in China in 2003 caused a more dangerous condition known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. The virus was contained after it had sickened 8,098 people and killed 774. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, is also caused by a coronavirus. The new virus has been named SARS-CoV-2. The disease it causes is called Covid-19. How dangerous is it ? It is hard to accurately assess the lethality of a new virus. It appears to be less often fatal than the coronaviruses