Abstract
In December 2019, a new respiratory disease manifesting as viral pneumonia emerged in Wuhan, China. Isolation and identification of the virus showed that the pathogen causing this disease was a novel coronavirus. On January 12, 2020, the World Health Organization named the novel coronavirus causing the outbreak 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The disease caused by the virus was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Later, the Coronavirus Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses formally named this virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus shows strong infectivity and high lethality, arousing widespread concern. As an emerging virus, a comprehensive understanding of SARS-CoV-2 is missing. To provide a reference and a theoretical basis for further study of SARS-CoV-2, recent advances in our understanding of the virus are summarized in this review.