Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and this kind of virus is highly infectious. Patients will experience severe acute respiratory infection symptoms if they are infected by the virus. Unfortunately, some patients have a very bleak prognosis or even die of it. Therefore, it seriously affects people’s normal life. Nowadays, various countries are actively conducting relevant research and have conducted in-depth discussions on the response plan to be adopted after the outbreak of COVID-19. This review includes not only the pathogenic characteristics, pathogenic mechanism and detection methods of SARS-CoV-2, but also the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.