In December 2019, several cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology were reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and were linked to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market [1,2,3]. The disease which is now called COVID-19 is caused by a novel coronavirus, labeled as SARS-CoV-2, which was discovered through whole-genome sequencing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and culture of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid obtained from affected patients [1, 4]. This virus, which is the seventh coronavirus that has been proven to infect humans, has 75–80% genomic similarity to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), 50% to the Middle East Respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and 96% to a bat coronavirus and uses the same cell receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2), that is used by SARS-CoV [1, 4, 5].

As of March 1, 2020, 87 137 confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from China and 53 other countries [6, 7]. Among the 79 394 confirmed cases in China, there were 2838 deaths [6, 7] With the expectation that these numbers are likely to increase, there are increasing global concerns about the outbreak, particularly for the intensive care community [8].

This is the third coronavirus that has emerged in the past 2 decades, causing multinational outbreaks and carrying substantial morbidity and mortality [9, 10]. While there are distinct features for each of these outbreaks (Table 1), the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak brings to intensivists and the critical care community similar challenges to what was faced with SARS and MERS outbreaks, and there are multiple lessons that can be learned [11, 12].