WORLD Health Organization (WHO) has on Tuesday announced a change of name for the novel coronavirus that has killed over 1000 people in China and one in the Philippines.

The coronavirus is now called CoViD-19, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General at the World Health Organization announced during a Tuesday news conference.

“Co” stands for coronavirus, “Vi” is for virus and “D” is for disease, Tedros explained.

He said health officials purposely avoided naming CoViD-19 after a geographical location, animal or group of people.

“Having a name matters, to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing,” he said.

WHO added that the organisation is holding a 2-day meeting with over 400 scientists to provide answers to all questions about COVID-19.

“As you know, today and tomorrow WHO is hosting a meeting of more than 400 scientists from around the world, both in person and virtually, the main outcome we expect from this meeting is not immediate answers to every question,” Tedros noted

Since the  COVID-19 was first detected back in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, China’s National Health Commission said on Tuesday that it has recorded a total of 42,638 confirmed coronavirus cases.

There are at least 319 cases confirmed in 24 other countries, according to the WHO, which has declared the outbreak a global health emergency