Is the virus a cell?

This question becomes easy to answer once the basic requirements of cell design are known. One just needs to check if the 3 basic requirements: cell membrane, genetic material and biosynthetic machinery are all present in the virus. If one does that, then one will discover that the 3rd requirement, the biosynthetic machinery, is missing in viruses. There you have it; the virus cannot be a cell because it lacks the 3rd basic requirement for a cell. This is the reason why viruses have to infect other cells; they need to use the biosynthetic machinery of these cells in order to replicate their own genetic material and form membranes. That’s the only way to form more viruses.