There are a total of seven types of coronaviruses that infect humans: 229E and NL63 are the alpha coronaviruses OC43, HKU1, MERS CoV, and SARS CoV are beta coronaviruses, and SARS CoV 2 or COVID 19 is a novel coronavirus. ...The pandemic then fanned out rapidly, involving Italy, Japan, South Korea, Iran, and the rest of the world....