○ Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning that they are transferred to animals and humans. There were originally six types of coronaviruses known to be transmittable to humans.

○ Among these six types, four types cause illnesses like the flu, and the other two are called MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV.

○ Sequencing has confirmed that the causative virus of this outbreak – the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) – is an 89.1% match with SARS-like virus originating from bats.