Evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: A global health emergency

Abstract

According to data compiled by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, more than two and half million cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by a newly discovered virus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have been confirmed on April 20, 2020 (Nature, 2020b). Since the emergence of this infectious disease in Asia (Wuhan, China) late last year, it has been subsequently span to every continent of the world except Antarctica (Rodríguez-Morales et al., 2020). Along with a foothold in every country, the current disease pandemic is disrupting practically every aspect of life all over the world. As the outbreak are continuing to evolve, several research activities have been conducted for better understanding the origin, functions, treatments, and preventions of this novel coronavirus. This review will be a summa of the key features of novel coronavirus (nCoV), the virus causing disease 2019 and the present epidemic situation worldwide up to April 20, 2020. It is expected that this record will play an important role to take more preventive measures for overcoming the challenges faced during this current pandemic.

Keywords: Epidemic; Novel coronavirus; Public health; Respiratory disease.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Geographic distribution of COVID-19 cases worldwide, as of April 20, 2020.

Fig. 2

The number of papers found in the Google scholar by the topic query “Coronavirus” as of April 20, 2020.

Fig. 3

Model of the virions of a coronavirus.

Fig. 4

Infographic illustration: coronavirus transmission

Fig. 5

Mechanism of coronavirus infection and replication cycle

Fig. 6

Collection of a clinical test sample of nasopharyngeal secretions (Nasopharyngeal swab).

Fig. 7

Flattening the COVID-19 Epidemic Curve.

Fig. 8

Infographic: preventive measures for COVID-19.

Fig. 9

Distribution of COVID-19 a) confirmed cases and b) deaths worldwide, by continent, as of April 20, 2020 (according to the applied case definition and testing strategies in the affected countries).

Fig. 10

The speed of increasing the number of COVID-19 cases in each country since the 100th confirmed case (from January 22 to April 20, 2020).

Fig. 11

Current case fatality rate of COVID-19: a) Comparison of CFR values with number of confirmed cases and deaths in the affected countries up to April 20, 2020; b) CFR over time (from February 25 to April 20, 2020) for ten top countries having higher CFR on April 20, 2020.