SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19: Salient Facts and Strategies to Combat Ongoing Pandemic

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus – 2 (SARS-CoV-2), an emerging novel coronavirus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has now rapidly spread to more than 215 countries and has killed nearly 0.75 million people out of more than 20 million confirmed cases as of 10th August, 2020. Apart from affecting respiratory system, the virus has shown multiple manifestations with neurological affections and damaging kidneys. SARS-CoV-2 transmission mainly occurs through close contact of COVID-19 affected person, however air-borne route is also now considered as dominant route of virus spread. The virus has been implicated to have originated from animals. Apart from bats, pangolins and others being investigates to play role in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 as intermediate hosts, the recent reports of this virus infection in other animals (cats, dogs, tigers, lions, mink) suggest one health approach implementation along with adopting appropriate mitigation strategies. Researchers are pacing to develop effective vaccines and drugs, few reached to clinical trials also, however these may take time to reach the mass population, and so till then adopting appropriate prevention and control is the best option to avoid SARS-CoV-2 infection. This article presents an overview on this pandemic virus and the disease it causes, with few recent concepts and advances.

Operationalization of COVID-19 Rapid Diagnosis Using Xpert® Xpress SARS CoV-2 Assay in Resource-Limited Settings: Early Implementation Lessons From Uganda

“…There are advances towards the development of effective vaccines and drugs [13]. However, these may delay to reach the mass population, and so till then adopting appropriate prevention and control is the best option to contain the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic [13].…”

“…There are advances towards the development of effective vaccines and drugs [13]. However, these may delay to reach the mass population, and so till then adopting appropriate prevention and control is the best option to contain the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic [13]. Perhaps the most important insight from the international COVID-19 response to date has been that to successfully slow transmission and safeguard health systems, it is essential to accurately diagnose and effectively isolate and care for all cases of COVID-19 including those with the mild or moderate disease either in health or home settings, depending on the context and degree of illness [14].…”

Early detections of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and their use in COVID-19 epidemiological control

“…The transmission may also occur by indirect contact through contaminated surfaces and fomites (Mouchtouri et al 2020;Patel et al 2020;Xie et al 2020). The transmission of the disease has been limited by protective measures, such as personal hygiene, use of face masks, eye protectors, physical distancing, adequate ventilation of closed spaces, surface disinfections and immunization by vaccines (Amanat & Krammer 2020;Chu et al 2020;Sah et al 2020;WHO 2020c;Ding et al 2021).…”

COVID-19: Anthropocene and Capitalocene Caused Pandemics

“…The time between exposure and symptom onset is around 5 days but may range from two to fourteen days. Common symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath (Sah, 2020). Thus, preventive measures are recommended that include the use of masks in public places, handwashing, maintain physical distance from other people, monitoring and selfquarantine for people who suspect they may be infected.…”