Abstract
Coronavirus (CoV) has been one of the major pandemic threats to human health in the last two decades. The human coronavirus was first identified in 1960s. CoVs 229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV have caused numerous disasters or human deaths worldwide. Recently, an outbreak of the previously unknown deadly CoV disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 (SARS-CoV-2, early named 2019-nCoV) occurred in Wuhan, China, and it had caused 81238 cases of confirmed infection, including 3250 deaths until March 19, 2020. Its risks and pandemic potential have brought global consideration. We summarized epidemiology, virological characteristics, clinical symptoms, diagnostic methods, clinical treatments, and prevention methods for COVID-19 to present a reference for the future wave of probable CoV outbreaks.