Spread of Corona Virus Disease (COVID – 19) from an Outbreak to Pandemic in the Year 2020

Aims: The COVID-19 is most recently discovered of the corona viruses which caused respiratory infections consisting of two large scale pandemics MERS & SARS and found to be zoonotic in origin. The disease started from Wuhan local seafood market in China and infected 2,761 people. The 2019-nCoV virus isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of critically ill patients and has shown it 96% identical to bat coronavirus and bearing same cell entry receptor angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2). Corona means crown in Latin and it look like a crown under a microscope. Corona virus disease is an infectious disease where most infected people suffered from mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment however older people and those with underlying medical problems develop serious illness and can be prevented by washing the hands or using an alcohol based rub and not touching the face. Outbreak is small but unusual; the epidemic is outbreak over a larger geographic area while pandemic spreads to multiple countries.

Methodology: The duration of review for spread of COVID-19 was between 31st December 2019 to 11th March 2020. The 31st December 2019 was the reporting of first case of Corona Virus (COVID-19) by the China while 11th March was declaration date of Pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).A total of 70 papers consisting of research article, review papers and news reports has been studied and evaluated.

Results: China on 31 December 2019 first informed about COVID-19 and WHO declared on 11 March 2020 that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. Scientists suspected that corona virus originated in a bat and before passing to human hopped to another animal. Thailand, Japan, USA, France, Australia, Germany, Italy and Spain reported their first case on 13, 16, 19, 24, 25, 27, 31 and 31 January 2020. In February the cases reported by Belgium, Egypt, Iran, Brazil, Pakistan, Netherland, England and Ireland on 4,14,19,25,26,27,28,29 while in March cases seen in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Peru and Turkey on 2, 5, 6 and 10 respectively. WHO on 11 March 2020 assessed the outbreak as a pandemic with 114 affected countries.

Conclusions: The spread of disease as a pandemic occurred due to movement of carriers outside China. Strict quarantine needed to prevent spread of disease. The code of ethics for social distancing should be defined and strictly implemented. Selling, buying and eating of wildlife animals should be internationally banned.