On December 31, 2019, China reported cases of respiratory illness in humans appearing first in Wuhan, Hubei Province, that involved a novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (aka 2019-nCoV).

This new emergency is a zoonotic disease with unknown animal reservoir and with evidence of person-to-person transmission. The basic reproductive number of this infection is estimated to be 2.2 (95% CI, 1.4–3.9).

The new agent causing this pneumonia, a coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), was identified and sequenced and diagnostic tests were developed. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization issued a worldwide public health alert on the emergence of a new epidemic viral disease.

To date, the ECDC criteria to require diagnostic testing for suspected cases are patients with acute respiratory infection (requiring hospitalization or not) in the 14 days prior to the onset of symptoms with at least one of the following epidemiological criteria being present: close contact with a confirmed or probable case of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COrona VIrus Disease 2019, COVID-19) (or) history of travel to China (or) having worked in or having attended a healthcare facility where patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections were being treated.

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