Dear netizens, Coronavirus is not related to Corona beer

The new-found virus Coronavirus, found in Wuhan, China which has affected over 7,700 people is not the same as the beer Corona. While they do come with the same name, your beloved beer is not to be blamed for the deadly virus. You have a lime with the beer Corona and you can die because of the coronavirus, a stark difference. Yet, according to Google Trends as reported by USA Today, Google searches for “beer virus” and “Corona beer virus” have been on the rise, corresponding to the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) beyond Wuhan and beyond China.

Google Trends also reported questions and inquiries about the coronavirus spiking over 1,050 per cent, by last Tuesday. The top questions on the coronavirus from the past 24 hours include, “what is coronavirus”, “symptoms of coronavirus?”, and “is coronavirus deadly?”. Other coronavirus searches included, “Corona beer virus”, and “beer virus”, and to answer these questions, Corona is once again not related to or the cause of the coronavirus nCoV.

Also read: All you need to know about China’s spreading Coronavirus outbreak

Sure, the two terms do share the root word “corona,” which comes from the Latin corōna meaning “crown,” and translates the same way in modern languages including Spanish and Italian. The family of respiratory infections and viruses, first identified in1950s, was named for its crown-like shape. Meanwhile, the crisp, light beer, first brewed in 1925, uses a crown as its logo, and is produced by Cervecería Modelo and Constellation Brands in Mexico. The countries who are currently asking these ill-informed queries include Brazil, Australia, India, France, Germany, England, Finland, Indonesia, Japan, Canada and the US, among few others.

Coronavirus was first reported in December 2019, in Wuhan, a port city in Hubei province in China. By January 7, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Chinese officials announced the identification of the virus which seemed to be a part of the family of coronavirus, which include the SARS virus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and the common cold. This new strain of virus was named 2019-nCoV. Since then, the virus has affected over 7,700 people and resulted in over 170 deaths.

The coronavirus is transmissible and can spread easily, unlike your chilled bottle of Corona which you can only get through a shop or a bartender, unless you spill it. And so please do not confuse your beer with your virus, and do not panic when you get handed a Corona bottle.

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