The year 2020 witnessed a challenging period for worldwide scientists to find a suitable treatment for the deadly novel coronavirus infectious disease-2019 (nCOVID or COVID-19). The entire scientific community has been eager to develop effective vaccines and medicine against COVID-19. Despite the fact of administration of vaccination in several countries across the globe, the drug repurposing of several antiviral compounds yielded satisfactory results in recovering the affected people. As it is a known fact that vaccination alone is not the end of this pandemic, but the final treatment in terms of drugs/medicines specific to this disease is yet underway. It looks worthy to present a literature survey based on the collective information related to the drug candidates that have been repurposed, the respective theoretical evaluation, and some of the effective therapies usable in treating COVID-19. This review also describes diagnosis and vaccination availed so far. Therefore, a sequential literature extract is hereby presented starting from the detection, going through virulence, drug repositioning, virtual screening, and the final destination in the form of vaccine development. A few commercially available vaccines have also been introduced. Based on the survey, it is clear that the entire world must remain alert for any future pandemic keeping in view the successful and unsuccessful efforts practiced in the COVID-19 pandemic.