Coronavirus risk

The World Health Organisation defines coronaviruses as a family of viruses that cause infectious illness ranging from very mild to very severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a new strain which originated in China at the end of 2019. It causes an illness referred to as COVID-19 which has since spread to other countries all over the world initiating a global pandemic public health emergency.