Introduction
Summary of Covid-19
Coronavirus is an infectious respiratory i*+-illness whose cause is a newly identified coronavirus. It is a family of viruses that can lead to conditions like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) common cold and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The majority of individuals who suffer from the disease show symptoms of common respiratory disease and the majority get better without undergoing specialized treatment. However, people with underlying medical challenges such as cancer, diabetes, and prolonged respiratory conditions have a higher likelihood of developing severe illness due to the coronavirus. Another group that is subject to severe conditions is aged. The primary method through which covid-19 spreads is through nose discharge or salivary droplets. Currently, there is no particular treatment for the virus. The significant symptoms associated with the disease include dry cough, tiredness, and fever. Some signs are less common in covid-19 patients. These include sore throat, taste and smell loss, diarrhea, headache, skin rash, conjunctivitis, and pains, and aches. The identified emergency signs that require the immediate attention of the doctor include incapability to stay awake, breathing problems, consistent chest pain, and blue face or lips.
Prevalence at a global and national level
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, there were 10,460,790 confirmed covid-19 cases across the globe as of 2 July 2020 at 10.58 am CEST. The number of deaths was 511,133. The new cases were 106,262 individuals. Based on the regional distribution of confirmed cases, America has 5,318,095 infections, while Europe has 2,724,635. The Eastern Mediterranean has 1,078,342 cases, and South-East has 812,681 cases. Africa ha 307,605 cases and the region with the least number of infections is Western Pacific, with 218,691 cases. The USA reported 2,780,152 total confirmed cases and 130,798 total deaths, while the recoveries were 1,164,794 as of 2 July 2020. The total number of active cases in the country is 1,484,560 people (WHO, 2020).
Significance of the issue to the public health
Addressing coronavirus is vital because it spreads through salivary and nose discharges; hence it isn’t easy to prevent it (Singhal, 2020). Also, the virus does not have a vaccine, and at times it has no symptoms making it difficult to determine who has the virus. Therefore, it is crucial to address the issue of deciding how to prevent further infections or get a vaccine. The number of daily reported cases is high, which creates importance for assessing the virus and determining how to prevent new infections. Because of the disease, most of the economy sectors were affected, and the effect still exists. Also, there is an increase in unemployment levels.
Why divert time towards covid-19
According to a May 2020 report, over 40 million individuals had filled for unemployment in 10 weeks. The unemployment rates were 14.7% in April from the March unemployment rate in March (4.4%) (Banjade, 2020). Therefore, there is a need to evaluate coronavirus to prevent further crises. Dedicating time towards covid-19 will help control the unemployment levels through either getting a vaccine or presenting ways through which people can prevent new infections.
History and evolution of Covid-19
There are numerous types of coronavirus, and the first was identified in the 1930s in chicken. The coronavirus was first reported in humans in the 1960s. The current coronavirus was, however, first published in Wuhan, China. It was reported that the virus is a member of the beta category –coronavirus categories include alpha, beta, gamma, and delta (Shereen et al., 2020). The USA reported its first covid-19 case in January 2020, and the numbers have drastically increased.
References
Banjade, D. (2020). S&P 500 Index and COVID-19. Available at SSRN 3601615.
Shereen, M. A., Khan, S., Kazmi, A., Bashir, N., & Siddique, R. (2020). COVID-19 infection:
Origin, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses. Journal of Advanced
Research.
Singhal, T. (2020). A review of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). The Indian Journal of
Pediatrics, 1-6.
World Health Organization. (2020). WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard.
Retrieved from https://covid19.who.int/