A Look at COVID-19 Global Health Situation, 1-Year Post Declaration of the Pandemic

Abstract

The new coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). The impacts of COVID-19 have changed over the past year globally. There were 116 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in more than 220 countries, including 2.5 million deaths, as reported at the end of the first week of March 2021. Throughout this time, different variants of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged. In early March, the United States of America (USA) led in both confirmed cases and casualties, while India followed in the number of confirmed cases and Brazil in the number of deaths. Vaccines are available in the USA and worldwide to help combat COVID-19. The level of preparedness among multisectoral communities played a role in transmission rates; therefore, lessons learned from past outbreaks, alongside this pandemic, are crucial in establishing policies and regulations to reduce and/or prevent the spread. This narrative literature review provides an update on the global spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the current impact of the pandemic 1-year after the declaration, preparedness, and mitigation efforts since the outbreak.

Keywords: COVID-19; Global Health; SARS-CoV-2 variants; disease outbreak; pandemic.

Figure 1.

Global cumulative cases of COVID-19, through the end of the first week of March 2021. Source: Data recreated using the number of confirmed cases reported by WHO.

Figure 2.

Global cumulative casualties of COVID-19, through the end of the first week of March 2021. Source: Data recreated using the number of confirmed deaths reported by WHO.