Origin, Transmission and Spread of COVID-19: Lessons for Future

ABSTRACT

At the end of 2019, a novel Corona virus was identified as the cause of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei Province of China, which has been declared pandemic globally. As a result of which most parts of the worlds were under complete lockdown in order to curb this contagious disease. The pandemic COVID-19 which started from the Wuhan province of China has now spread globally effecting about 6 million people. The world has faced such a pandemic after Spanish Flu of 1918 which affected about 500 million people worldwide. This pandemic has had huge impacts in terms of health, economic, social, cultural life of nearly every individual. Vulnerable groups mainly migrant workers, marginalized women;children have faced magnanimous crises due to this pandemic which is still rising, physically as well as mentally. Considering the data as on 1st of July 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that covid-19 has infected 9,277,214 people and claimed 478,691 lives globally;nearly 216 countries have been affected so far by this deadly virus. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, COVID-19 has 186,514 active cases and has claimed 14,894 lives (July 1, 2020). To curb the spread of virus, the government of India announced lockdown on country wide basic for a period of 21 days which was further extended to May 31st 20. Objective: In order to gear toward of the spread of this pandemic, we must explore its virology, zoonotics, and epidemiology to develop an understanding of the transmission of the disease. The structure of the receptor-binding gene region is very similar to that of the SARS corona virus, and the virus has been shown to use the same receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), for cell entry. The International Committee on taxonomy of viruses has proposed that this virus be designated as severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It comes from the same family of virus i.e. corona viruse that caused SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) pandemic in 2002 and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) in 2012 and effected a large number of people but not at the level which this SARS-CoV-2 has affected. Full-genome sequencing and phylogenic analysis indicated that the virus causing COVID-19 is a betacoronavirus in the same subgenus as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus (as well as several bat corona viruses), but in a different clade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), delineated incubation period of COVID-19 as approximately 5.1 days (range 2-14 days) and thus, quarantine period for COVID-19 is set by WHO at 14 days. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemics in association with economic catastrophes are posing huge challenges, raising many challenges including wrenching trade-offs. Crises are global, but their impacts are deeply local affecting every individual. The policy response to this plight needs to be rapid, even if it is rough around the edges. All it requires is universal solidarity, coordination and cooperation among nations all across globe. © 2023 DMICS.