From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus> Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, the viruses cause respiratory infections which are typically mild, including the common cold; however, rarer forms such as SARS, MERS and the novel coronavirus causing the current outbreak can be lethal.
Look at the history page https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coronavirus&actio... It has like 800 changes. The oldest one is from March 2003 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coronavirus&oldid...
> we are currently dealing with an evolved version of it
This is true in the technical sense, but my guess is that you are using "evolved" in the not technical sense that is closer to "upgraded".
There are many strains of coronavirus. I can find the number, but Wikipedia list like 10 potentially deadly version for humans and like 10 potentially deadly version for domestic animals. There are more versions for wild animals. And there are all the non deadly versions that give you a common cold, and you pass the version to your friends, and it get's cured in a week. I can't find a good number, and it looks like a too deep rabbit hole to go into, so let me guess a few thousands of versions.
Each version is specialized in a different animal, or family of animals. (Probably to detect the best spot in the nose to reproduce and be contagious, perhaps some small adaptations to the temperature and humidity of that spot.)
The current outbreak of coronavirus is a virus that was specialized in some animal (bats? snakes?) and probably was infecting them for centuries and now is infecting humans. Perhaps nobody meet an ill animal before. Perhaps a mutation of the virus was helpful to avoid the inmune system of the animal, and the same mutation make it by chance more contagious or deadly in humans.
