SARS-CoV-2

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS‑CoV‑2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is contagious in humans. It enters human cells by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Like other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 has four structural proteins, known as the S (spike), E (envelope), M (membrane), and N (nucleocapsid) proteins.