PETALING JAYA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially named the 2019 coronavirus “Covid-19”.
“We now have a name for the disease and it’s Covid-19,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.
He said that “co” stands for “corona”, “vi” for “virus” and “d” for “disease”.
AFP quoted Ghebreyesus as saying the name was chosen to avoid references to a specific geographical location, animal species or group of people.
This, he said, was in line with international recommendations for naming to avoid stigmatisation.
WHO had earlier given the virus the temporary name of “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”.