An abbreviation of "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2," which is the virus that causes the disease known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The World Health Organization (WHO) publicly characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020. The WHO described SARS-CoV-2 as genetically related (though not identical) to SARS-CoV-1, the strain of coronavirus that caused the SARS outbreak in 2003.

In late 2020, a variant of SARS-CoV-2 known as "B.1.1.7" emerged in the United Kingdom and has since been detected in numerous countries, including the US. The B.1.1.7 variant is believed to be more easily transmitted than other SARS-CoV-2 variants. In February 2021, the Biden administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced funding for expanded genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 (including bioinformatics and modeling) to identify new variants of the virus and potentially prevent their spread.

For more information on SARS-CoV-2 testing during the COVID-19 pandemic, see: