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The novel coronavirus (CoV), earlier named 2019-nCoV, and later as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has now created havoc and panic across the globe by its severe ongoing pandemic This virus has to date as of 23rd November 2020, killed nearly 1 4 million persons out of more than 59 million confirmed positive cases, while spreading rapidly in more than 215 countries and territories Taxonomically, SARS-CoV-2 has been characterized in genus Betacoronavirus, which contains non-segmented positive-sense, single-stranded (ss) RNA genome of ~30 kb The first two open reading frames (ORFs), ORF1a and ORF1b, of SARS-CoV-2, encode 16 non-structural proteins (nsp1-nsp16), whereas other ORFs encodes four main structural proteins (sp) [spike (s) by ORF2, envelope (E) by ORF4, membrane (M) by ORF5, nucleoprotein (N) by ORF9], and accessory proteins essential for the virus fitness, pathogenesis and host immunity evasion Sequence alignments of SARS-CoV-2 with genomes of various coronaviruses showed 58% identity in the non-structural protein (nsp)-coding region, 43% with the structural protein (sp)-coding region and 54% with the whole genome The full-length genome sequence of the 2019-nCoV sample showed only up to 79 60% similarity with SARS CoV, but up to 96% similarity with bat coronavirus (bat coronavirus RaTG13) This gives strong evidence that 2019-nCoV has originated from the bat The genomic and evolutionary evidence of another coronavirus species from pangolins also show higher similarity to SARS-CoV at the whole-genome level Apart from RaTG13, Pangolin-CoV is the most closely related CoV to SARS-CoV-2 During infection, the viral S protein interacts with the receptor protein of the human cell membrane, known as angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) Presently, SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and drugs are not available, for which researchers are trying hard to develop to tackle rising tide of COVID-19-pandemic Early diagnosis, contact tracing, strict prevention and control measures, biosecurity, personal biosafety, disinfection and sanitization practices, social distancing are aiding in prevention with SARS-CoV-2 infection Boosting immunity by intaking the balanced and nutritious food, nutraceuticals, herbs, and following physical exercises along with avoiding stress conditions enhance the fighting power of the body against SARS-CoV-2 infection and limiting the severity of COVID-19 The present article describes salient knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 structure, genomic organization, pathogenesis, pathobiology, and advances and progress being made to treat COVID-19 patients © 2020, Editorial board of Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences All rights reserved