For the ongoing pandemic, see the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.[7] The disease has since spread worldwide, leading to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
Symptoms of COVID‑19 are variable, but often include fever,[9] cough, headache,[10] fatigue, breathing difficulties, loss of smell, and loss of taste.[11][12][13] Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not develop noticeable symptoms.[14] Of those people who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classed as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% suffer critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction).[15] Older people are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms. Some people continue to experience a range of effects (long COVID) for months after recovery, and damage to organs has been observed.[16] Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the long-term effects of the disease.[16]
Source: Wikipedia
