COVID-19 is a novel strain of Coronavirus, a type of respiratoryvirus, which was not previously identified in humans. Althoughseasonal flu is also a contagious respiratory virus, that may affectsome people worse than others, we have had the opportunity to studyseasonal flu for many years which means we are more aware of how itspreads and changes each year. There are also effective vaccines thathave been developed for flu to protect those more at risk of becomingvery unwell. Our understanding of the novel coronavirus is much morelimited and there are currently no vaccinations to prevent the diseaseand we are still trying to understand this new disease fully.