Environmental factors and their role in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2

In December of 2019, several cases of atypical pneumonia caused by an unknown agent were reported in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province in China. In early January 2020, it was announced that these cases were caused by a novel coronavirus. The virus was later named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), which causes a disease associated with atypical pneumonia termed Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID‐19).