Understanding of COVID‐19 based on current evidence

Since December 2019, a series of unexplained pneumonia cases have been reported in Wuhan, China. On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) temporarily named this new virus as the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019‐nCoV). On 11 February 2020, the WHO officially named the disease caused by the 2019‐nCoV as coronavirus disease (COVID‐19). The COVID‐19 epidemic is spreading all over the world, especially in China. Based on the published evidence, we systematically discuss the characteristics of COVID‐19 in the hope of providing a reference for future studies and help for the prevention and control of the COVID‐19 epidemic. Research Highlights Currently, the world is watching the progress of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) epidemic. The purpose of our article is to give people a comprehensive understanding of COVID‐19, so that they can better prevent it. We review the latest published papers on COVID‐19. In this paper, the origin of the virus, the mechanism of virus infection, the clinical characteristics of COVID‐19 and the treatment and prevention of COVID‐19 are comprehensively elaborated. We hope this article will help for the prevention and control of the COVID‐19 epidemic.