A coronavirus belongs to a family of pathogens that can cause illnesses ranging from cold, cough, fever, shortness of breath, pneumonia, kidney failure and death. The coronavirus was responsible for the deaths due to SARS, MERS (severe acute respiratory syndrome, middle east acute respiratory syndrome). The SARS outburst was in 2003 in China perceived to have originated from bats and MERS in 2012 in saudi arabia from camels. The present one in 2020 is known as Novel coronavirus. The symptoms are as documented above. Precautions include using a face mask probably N95 mask, using a handkerchief while sneezing, seeking medical help, quarantining the patient in isolated wards, symptomatic treatment, staying away from infected patients, awareness programs and checking people who have come from China and other infected countries.
Covid-19 has jumped the species gap from an animal, possibly a bat, and into humans. It won’t stop until every susceptible person has been either infected or vaccinated. After that it will keep infecting a few people each year and a few of those, mainly people already ill, will die.
In theory we could eliminate the virus in the same way we eliminated smallpox. In practise if Covid-19 behaves like the closely related cold viruses that would cost immense amounts of money.