Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China.The virus belongs to the family Coronaviridae, which includes viruses that cause respiratory illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).SARS-CoV-2 is a single-stranded RNA virus with a genome consisting of about 30,000 nucleotides.