The World Health Organization (WHO) on February 11 announced an official designation for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), naming the condition COVID-19.
WHO previously had used the term "novel coronavirus pneumonia" to refer to the disease caused by 2019-nCoV infection. But the agency noted that new coronaviruses will likely emerge in the future, so the term "novel" will no longer be well-suited for the 2019 virus.
WHO noted that the new naming convention will provide a format for referring to new coronavirus diseases in the future. Previous diseases caused by coronaviruses were given names described by their clinical manifestations: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
Shortly after the WHO announcement naming the disease, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the virus causing it SARS-CoV-2. The committee presented its rationale in a paper posted to the bioRxiv preprint server.
![Images show the pectoralis muscles of a healthy male individual who never smoked (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; body mass index [BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], 28.4; number of cigarette pack-years, 0; forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], 97.6% predicted; FEV1: forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio, 0.71; pectoralis muscle area [PMA], 59.4 cm2; pectoralis muscle volume [PMV], 764 cm3) and a male individual with a smoking history and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; BMI, 27.5; number of cigarette pack-years, 43.2, FEV1, 48% predicted; FEV1:FVC, 0.56; PMA, 35 cm2; PMV, 480.8 cm3) from the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (i.e., CanCOLD) study. The CT image is shown in the axial plane. The PMV is automatically extracted using the developed deep learning model and overlayed onto the lungs for visual clarity.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/03/genkin.25LqljVF0y.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)