COVID-19: An Insight Into the Pandemic of a New Emerging Coronavirus

Abstract

Since Decem ber 2019, a novel Cor onavir us nam ed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been implicated in an outbreak of SARSlike illness, which began in a wild animal market of Wuhan in Hubei province of China and the World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted on the 31st December 2019 of this public health threat. On the 11th March 2020, the WHO announced that this disease termed COVID-19 has become pandemic, the first for any coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness such as the common cold to more severe diseases such as SARS. To date, the virus has spread to over 100 countries, including 40 countries in Africa, including Nigeria. As at the time of this publication over 300,000 cases has been reported world-wide with over 14,000 deaths mostly from China and Italy. The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has since put in place measures to contain and prevent the further spread of the virus. This review highlights the current situation and knowledge of the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 and its epidemiological trends.