SARS-CoV-2

The 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic has been caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). More than a decade and a half earlier, between November 2002 and July 2003, an outbreak of SARS in southern China caused by SARS-Coronavirus, which led to an eventual 8,098 cases, resulting in 774 deaths reported in 17 countries. That viral outbreak was genetically traced to a colony of cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in China’s Yunnan province.