Infection with Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Causes Pneumonia in the Rhesus Macaques

Abstract

Coronavirus infections are common in humans and other mammals. Coronaviruses belong to the family Coronaviridae and possess a single strand, positive-sense RNA genome ranging from 26 to 32 kilobases in length. In December, 2019, a cluster of cases of pneumonia were reported in people associated with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The subsequently research from the bronchoalveolar lavage uid (BALF) of a hospitalized patient allowed the isolation of a novel coronavirus, which was named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and considered as the pathogen of the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) 1 . The common clinical features for COVID-19 include fever, cough, myalgia, fatigue, dyspnea, lymphopenia, and pneumonia, less common symptoms including sputum production, headache and haemoptysis and diarrhea 2 . As of February 19, 2020, a total of 75,204 cases had been reported in at least 25 countries with more than 10,000 in severe condition and 2,009 deaths 3 , whereas a sizable portion of infected but non-symptomatic people with