Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
In early February 2020, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses' Coronavirus Study Group gave SARS-CoV-2 its official name, for sudden acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus number two. Before that, people called the virus "2019-nCoV," for "novel (new) coronavirus that appeared in 2019." The study group chose this name because the new virus was so similar to another virus that was already called SARS-CoV with no number.