COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned and future directions

Abstract

Emerging pandemics show that humans are not infallible and communities need to be prepared. Coronavirus outbreak was first reported towards the end of 2019 and has now been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Worldwide countries are responding differently to the virus outbreak. A delay in detection and response has been recorded in China, as well as in other major countries, which led to an overburdening of the local health systems. On the other hand, some other nations have put in place effective strategies to contain the infection and have recorded a very low number of cases since the beginning of the pandemics. Restrictive measures like social distancing, lockdown, case detection, isolation, contact tracing, and quarantine of exposed had revealed the most efficient actions to control the disease spreading. This review will help the readers to understand the difference in response by different countries and their outcomes. Based on the experience of these countries, India responded to the pandemic accordingly. Only time will tell how well India has faced the outbreak. We also suggest the future directions that the global community should take to manage and mitigate the emergency.

Keywords: COVID-19; OneHealth; SARS-Cov-2; pandemic.

Figure 1

Countries, territories, and areas with reported confirmed cases of COVID-19, 31^st March 2020[2]

Figure 2

Number of new cases reported from the Hubei Province of China after the lockdown.[2] Note: Hubei went for lockdown on January 23^rd, 2020 and it took almost 6-8 weeks for the decline in new cases. Sudden decline on 20^th February was related to change in definition from "Clinically Diagnosed" to "Suspected" and "Confirmed" cases, where the latter required laboratory diagnosis

Figure 3

Number of new cases reported from Spain[2]

Figure 4

Test done for COVID-19 per million population in different countries (as on 29^th March)[39]