This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (CDC/Alissa Eckert, MS)

Johns Hopkins University has been given $200,000 in federal funds to support its global COVID-19 tracker that has become the preeminent resource worldwide for tracking the spread of the coronavirus.

Democratic Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Democratic Representatives Dutch Ruppersberger and John P. Sarbanes said the federal funds will be disbursed through the National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research grant program. The federal coronavirus stimulus package, under the CARES Act, allocated $75 million to the foundation to fund efforts that prevent, prepare for and respond to the coronavirus, domestically or internationally.