Novel coronavirus named 'Covid-19': UN health agency

The World Health Organisation on Tuesday said "Covid-19" would be the new official name for the deadly coronavirus that was first identified in China on December 31.

"We now have a name for the disease and it's Covid-19," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva, explaining that "co" stood for "corona", "vi" for "virus" and "d" for "disease".