In December 2019, a novel pneumonia and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) attributed to a new coronavirus infection emerged from Hubei Province, China, and its rapid spread resulted in a global pandemic. 1,2 By the end of November 2021, there were approximately 261 million confirmed total cases of infection with SARS-CoV-2 and more than 5.2 million deaths attributed to coronavirus disease 2019 . This virus spreads via respiratory droplets shed from infected individuals. The average incubation time for the initiation of this life-threatening disease is reported to be 2-14 days with associated symptoms, which range in severity from mild (runny nose, dry cough, sore throat, loss of smell and taste, headache, nausea, diarrhoea, 3 fever, dyspnoea and fatigue) to severe (myalgia accompanied by lymphopenia and elevated Creactive protein (CRP) levels, 4 progressive pneumonia, development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multi-organ failure). 5,6 Notably, disease severity is also associated with underlying conditions that include age, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, lung and kidney disorders, immunocompromised state and also host genetic factors and virus variants. [7][8][9][10]
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