Abstract: COVID-19 occurred in December 2019 in the People’s Republic of China with an epicenter in Wuhan (Hubei Province). On February 11, 2020, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses assigned an official name to the causative agent of the infection-SARS-CoV-2. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially named a new infectious disease – COVID-19 (“Corona virus disease 2019”). Information about the epidemiology, etiology, pathogenesis, clinical and laboratory diagnosis, as well as prevention and therapy of this disease is being expanded and will be supplemented as the study progresses. In 2012, an outbreak of SARS was reported in the Arabian Peninsula, caused by a new corona virus – MERS-CoV, also belonging to the genus Beta corona virus. The disease is called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The main natural reservoir of MERS-CoV is camels.