Home Misleading: COVID-19 stands for "China Outbreak Virus in December 2019."

Misleading: COVID-19 stands for "China Outbreak Virus in December 2019."

By: Annie Priya

May 11 2020

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Misleading: COVID-19 stands for "China Outbreak Virus in December 2019."

Fact-Check

The Verdict Misleading

A press briefing by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirms that the COVID-19 is an abbreviation of “Coronavirus Disease 2019".

A press briefing by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirms that the COVID-19 is an abbreviation of “Coronavirus Disease 2019".The social media users had posted claiming that COVID-19, stands for 'China Outbreak Virus in December 2019. According to the video on Periscope by the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus while addressing the daily press conference said that ‘CO' stands for corona, ‘VI’ stands for the virus and ‘D’ for disease, abbreviated as ‘COVID-19. (video reference: 05:35 to 07:00). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also stated that the first identified coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan China was named as COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation on 11 February 2020 and, formerly this disease was referred to as “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-nCoV. According to WHO guidelines, the disease names may not include geographical locations, people's names, species/class of animal or food, cultural, population, industry or occupational references and terms. (Ref Page no. 3 under table B). Therefore, WHO confirmed that COVID-19 is an abbreviation of 'Corona Virus Disease 2019' but not China Outbreak Virus in December 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.

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