Coronavirus’ Official Name Is COVID-19 And The WHO Says A Vaccine Is 18 Months Away

GENEVA: The first vaccine for the novel coronavirus “could be ready in 18 months”, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters here during a briefing on Tuesday.

Ghebreyesus further explained to the media that “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,” he said.

The WHO chief explained that the “co” stood for “corona,” “vi” for “virus,” and “d” for “disease”.

Earlier in the day, he welcomed participants, including leading scientists, to a global research and innovation forum in the Swiss capital focused on mobilising worldwide action as a response to the coronavirus, saying it was his “honour to address the full room”.

This is a meeting about science. We need collective knowledge, insight and experience to answer the questions we don’t have answers to, and to identify the questions we may not even realize we need to ask to stop the #2019nCoV outbreak.https://t.co/knR3sOGdFO

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 11, 2020

“We need collective knowledge, insight and experience to answer the questions we don’t have answers to, and to identify the questions we may not even realize we need to ask to stop the #2019nCoV outbreak,” he added.

To those under the lock-down in China, he said he and the participants “stand with you in solidarity, and we wish you courage, patience, success and good health in these extremely trying circumstances”.

“As of 6am Geneva time this morning, there were 42,708 confirmed cases reported in China, and tragically we have now surpassed 1000 deaths – 1017 people in China have lost their lives to this outbreak.

“Outside China, there are 393 cases in 24 countries, with 1 death, in the Philippines,” he added.

Ghebreyesus stressed that there was no vaccine at present to prevent this outbreak and no proven therapeutics to treat them but that there was WHO R&D Blueprint — a system established following the Ebola epidemic in Africa — to develop drugs and vaccines before the epidemics could spread around the world.