The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic: A review of the current evidence

Abstract

A novel coronavirus (nCoV) spillover event, with its epicenter in Wuhan, People's Republic of China, has emerged as a public health emergency of international concern. This began as an outbreak in December 2019, and till February 28, 2020, there have been 83,704 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) globally, with 2,859 deaths, resulting in an overall case fatality rate of 3.41 per cent (95% confidence interval 3.29-3.54%). By this time (February 28, 2020) 58 countries or territories and one international conveyance (Diamond Princess Cruise Ship) were affected. As a part of the global response to manage and contain the pandemic, major emphasis was placed on generating research intelligence to guide evidence-based responses to contain the virus, which was named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), owing to its genetic similarities with the SARS virus. This review summarizes the emerging evidence which can help guide the public health response, particularly in India. Key areas have been identified in which research needs to be conducted to generate critical intelligence for advising prevention and control efforts. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has once again exposed the weaknesses of global health systems preparedness, ability to respond to an infectious threat, the rapidity of transmission of infections across international borders and the ineffectiveness of knee-jerk policy responses to emerging/re-emerging infectious disease threats. The review concludes with the key learning points from the ongoing efforts to prevent and contain COVID-19 and identifies the need to invest in health systems, community-led response mechanisms and the need for preparedness and global health security.

<strong></strong><strong>Anosmia and Ageusia as Initial or Unique Symptoms after SARS-COV-2 Virus Infection</strong>

“…[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The current knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 is relative scarce, and most of it comes from deductions than actual data analysis. 3,[20][21][22][23] Coronaviruses are known as enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome, and their helical symmetry nucleocapsid is about 26-32 kilobases in size, making it the largest investigated genome among RNA viruses. [23][24][25] SARS-CoV-2 is a betacoronavirus belonging to the 2B group.…”

Forecasting Transmission Dynamics of COVID-19 Epidemic in India Under Various Containment Measures- A Time-Dependent State-Space SIR Approach

“…While analyzing the effect of containment measures on rate of transmission of infection, it is important that we take into account the average incubation period. The mean incubation period of COVID-19, defined as the time from exposure to the onset of illness, is reported to be around 5 days by many researchers; refer Lauer et al (2020); Chatterjee et al (2020b) and Yuan et al (2020) among others. This means that the impact of any intervention on the transmission rate can be expected to be visible only after 5 days, on an average.…”

Pandemic Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Challenges and A Global Perspective

“…The 'One health approach' is one such initiative that incorporates the preventive strategies for the emergence of zoonosis in all three arms; humans, animals, and the environment [142,143]. and others, as well as from the advances in science and technology in the modern era, to halt the further spread of this virus and to restrain COVID-19 [117,[145][146][147][148][149][150][151][152].…”