Coronavirus or Covid 19 is a virus. Too small to be seen with the naked eye. Too small for an optical microscope to resolve. It is a ball of protein with RNA in it. Not really a life form and but good at forcing a host cell to help it replicate quickly. This speed of replication is so fast that the host human is spreading viruses and infecting lots of other people before the first symptoms show.
Coronavirus is zoonotic. Meaning it came from animals, most likely bats. Maybe through pangolins. It will only take days to make a hundred billion copies of itself. The bodies immune system kicks in and makes you feel sick. Fever.
It lives outside the body. But outside the body it’s hardly living. Just a tiny bit of chemistry waiting to find its way inside a cell. So given the right conditions it can remain dangerous for a long time. Dormant, invisible and dangerous.