A GP guide to what we know about COVID-19
COVID-19 is the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. Here is a current summary of COVID-19, the understanding of which is rapidly changing
SARS-CoV-2 is a member of the sarbecovirus subgenus of bat coronaviruses. Compared with its predecessors, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 is better adapted to the human upper respiratory tract epithelium.
This leads to overall milder disease than SARS and MERS and therefore greater community transmissibility due to unwitting spread by people with mild or subclinical infection.
COVID-19 causes severe disease in similar groups to pandemic influenza, except children.
The mortality of COVID-19 rises exponentially with age. In addition, like pandemic influenza, COVID-19 causes significant morbidity, including ICU admission and occasional deaths, in middle-aged adults.1
