ABSTRACT
Beginning at the end of 2019, corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19) caused by sevare acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus(SARS-CoV-2) appeared in Wuhan, China, and spread rapidly across the country. Prior to this, there had been two outbreaks in the world that caused serious consequences by different coronaviruses: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This article introduces the structure and classification of coronaviruses, discusses the origin, virological characteristics, and epidemiological overview of three coronaviruses-SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, and reviews the drugs that are currently on the market and are being developed to treat coronavirus infections, in order to explain the characteristics of coronavirus and provide new ideas for the prevention and control of 2019-nCoV and new coronavirus.