Claim: Coronavirus is not the same as COVID-19
Verdict: True
Researched by Gifty Tracy Aminu
The world continues to grapple with the ripples and ramifications of the COVID-19 outbreak. With 113 million total confirmed cases and 2.5 million deaths recorded around the world, the global pandemic has had a powerful hold on the human imagination.
False information about the disease has also become rampant and health authorities are torn between fighting the virus and raising awareness about the mis/disinformation circulating on the subject.
In Ghana, some social media users are debating whether there is any difference between coronavirus and COVID-19 as the country battles a second wave of infections?
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What are the facts?
Coronaviruses are a type of virus and there are many different kinds. A newly identified coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has caused the worldwide pandemic of respiratory illness, called COVID-19.
So, COVID-19 is the disease caused by a new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) first learned of this new virus on 31 December 2019, following a report of a cluster of cases of ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China.
“COVID-19 is the disease and the cause is Coronavirus. Just as malaria is caused by the parasite so is COVID-19 caused by coronavirus,” General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association GMA, Dr Justice Yankson clarified in an interview with GhanaFact.
COVID-19 symptoms include cough, fever or chills, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, muscle or body aches, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell, diarrhea, headache, new fatigue, nausea or vomiting and congestion or runny nose. COVID-19 can be severe, and some cases have caused death.
Verdict
The claim that coronavirus is not the same as COVID-19 is true.
