There is much more to coronaviruses than SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses are actually a family of hundreds of viruses.
(This article is republished here with permission from The Conversation. This content is shared here because the topic may interest Snopes readers; it does not, however, represent the work of Snopes fact-checkers or editors.)
Most of us will be infected with a coronavirus at least once in our life. This might be a worrying fact for many people, especially those who have only heard of one coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the disease known as COVID-19.
There is much more to coronaviruses than SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses are actually a family of hundreds of viruses. Most of these infect animals such as bats, chickens, camels and cats. Occasionally, viruses that infect one species can mutate in such a way that allows them to start infecting another species. This is called “cross-species transmission” or “spillover”.
The first coronavirus discovered was in chickens during the 1930s.
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COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the United States in January 2020. The first confirmed case of local transmission was recorded in January,[8] while the first known deaths happened in February.[9] By the end of March, cases had occurred in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and all inhabited U.S. territories except American Samoa.[10][11] As of May 27, 2020, the U.S. had the most confirmed active cases and deaths in the world.[12][13] As of June 19, 2020, its death rate was 361 per million people, the seventh-highest rate globally.[14][15]
- Wuhan, Hubei, China
- Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19: Cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fever, chills, muscle pain, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell.
- 1-14 days
- Human-to-human transmission via respiratory droplets
- Avoiding close contact with sick individuals; frequently washing hands with soap and water; not touching the eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands; and practicing good respiratory hygiene
- COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19)
Timeline in the USA
On December 31, 2019, China reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in its city of Wuhan.[3] On January 7, 2020, the Chinese health authorities confirmed that this cluster was caused by a novel infectious coronavirus.[3] The World Health Organization (WHO) issued technical briefings on January 10 and 11, warning about a strong possibility of human-to-human transmission and urging precautions.[118] On January 14, the WHO said "preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission", although it recommended that countries still take precautions due to the human-to-human transmission during earlier SARS and MERS outbreaks.[118]
On January 6, the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stated that the U.S. offered to send a team of CDC health experts to China to help contain the outbreak.[119] On January 8, the CDC issued an official health advisory via its Health Alert Network (HAN) and established an Incident Management Structure to coordinate domestic and international public health actions.[120] It issued an update on January 17, noting that person-to-person spread was not confirmed, but was still a possibility.[121] On January 20, it activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to further respond to the outbreak in China.[122] The same day, the WHO and China confirmed that human-to-human transmission had occurred.[123]
The earliest confirmed death from COVID-19 occurred on February 6 in Santa Clara County, California, when a 57-year-old woman died from complications caused by COVID-19 that apparently led to a ruptured heart.[9][128]
Return to Wikipedia for much more information about the pandemic
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