Infections to the respiratory tract and common cold are among illnesses caused by the large family of viruses called the Coronavirus (CoV). Death, dire respiratory issues and pneumonia are elicited when the infections are of a severe nature (Ludovic et al., 2020). There was some ignorance and overlooking directed at these viruses before the SARS outbreak. Nonetheless, the research on the vaccine has been spurred owing to the in-depth study of these viruses after the outbreaks of MERS and SARS. In China’s Wuhan city, there was detection of strange pneumonia cases on the 31st of December, 2019. In what came to be branded as COVID 19 by the World Health Organization (WHO), a novel Coronavirus was acknowledged as the causative agent in January 2020 (Bashir et al., 2020). Over 200 territories and nations of the world have been encroached into by the virus since the first case was reported in China. The virus’s origin is the subject of a lot of debate despite the initial claims that humans contracted the virus from animals according to experts. Practices of good hygiene in addition to the infected person be quarantined in order for the virus to be contained. The world has experienced a profound impact in terms of its socio-economic sphere as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The emergence of COVID-19
The WHO terms COVID 19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) as the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (Severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2). Central to the origin of the virus is the Wuhan area in China which hosts a seafood market (Abuselidze and Mamaladze, 2020). The marketplace which is typically crowded could have initiated the spread of the virus after the sale of an animal believed to have had the disease. One of the potential hosts of the viruses that was originally identified was a snake according to the first studies done on the subject. Bats are widely cited as the likeliest hosts of the virus after it was earlier posited that pangolins could also have been involved in the spread of the virus.
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Bats were also suspected of harboring MERS and SARS. The host in the intermediate phase is the dromedary camel in regards to MERS. For a while now, Coronaviruses have inhabited the bodies of bats. It is believed that animal to man transmission is what took place when the Coronavirus first infected the maiden person (Keni et al., 2020). This transmission is occasioned by increased anthropogenic activities that cause an increase in ecological pressure. Just like in Africa, China has had to grapple with forest encroachment by human beings. More often than not, the spillovers of a zootonic nature are commonplace today due to the climate change that results in even more pressures to the ecology. The origin of the net epidemic or pandemic may also have its roots in the above scenario if we do not arrest the current situation. A drift or a shift in the genes causes mutation and this strengthens the instability fact normally associated with viruses.
The spread of COVID-19
The virus’s major clusters, which were the cruise ship and China as a whole, seemed to be able to contain the virus before the commencement of the spread. Within the span of a few months, the virus’s cluster regions shifted dramatically with Iran, the United States and the major parts of Europe becoming the new hotbeds of the virus as of April, 2020. At the time, the cases of COVID-19 that were confirmed had reached an all-time high in the US with densely populated nations such as India doing so well to contain the spread of the disease through the introduction of measures such as a lockdown to keep the Coronavirus caseload at a minimum (Chakraborty and Maity, 2020). The same measures were also introduced in other countries such as the UK, which also benefitted from having low caseloads. The virus’s infection rate was unable to be effectively managed subsequently due to different strains of the virus emerging constantly. Transmission of the disease is through droplets.
Those individuals between the age of 20 years and 50 years are more susceptible to the virus according to reports from India and China. In tandem with this report, it is more likely that this age group will be exposed to the virus since the form the lion’s share of the work force in both these countries (Ficetola and Rubolini, 2021). When contrasting with the nations around them, low fatalities with a huge COVID-19 caseload has been observed in both Singapore and Germany. When the outbreak occurred, Singapore leveraged their earlier laid out plans after past outbreaks and this worked out well for them. At a time when the WHO had not introduced any measures to contain the spread of the virus, Singapore was proactive and swiftly started quarantine and screening of it
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