09/12/2021
[Science]
by: Hannah Leigh Castillo
CORONA VIRUS (COVID 19) AS A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
As the year 2020 approached, the whole world have been devastated by the global pandemic. The recent outbreak began in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province of China. Reports of the first COVID-19 cases started in the months of December to January year 2019-2020. SARS-CoV-2 or also known as Corona Virus (covid-19) is thought to have originated in bats, according to experts. It mainly started at a wet market in Wuhan China wherein they sell different types of wild animals and kill them on the spot to sell it to the customers. As days went by, the virus keeps on spreading until it reached different countries including the US, Italy, India, Philippines and other countries.
Human transmission primarily occurs through direct, indirect, or close contact with infected people through infected fluids such as respiratory secretions, saliva, or respiratory droplets ejected when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or speaks. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization coined the title COVID-19 and declared this emerging corona virus disease a pandemic. The virus is highly contagious, with a two-to-four-day incubation period. Many infected people are asymptomatic or suffer a mild respiratory disease as a result of their infection. Fever, non-productive cough, weariness, malaise, and dyspnea are the main clinical signs of the condition. In the elderly and individuals with concomitant illnesses, severe disease such as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and mortality might ensue. The case mortality rate is expected to be between two and three percent. As a result, the whole world undergone to a massive Community Quarantine and all of the citizens are required to wear face masks and other protective gears.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the tally of Covid- 19 cases globally as of December 2021 have been 263,563,622 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,232,562 deaths. And as of today there are already 7,938,597,991 vaccine doses administered all around the globe. The past two years may be very devastating but the year 2021 have been the year of healing and recovery. Vaccines have undergone different clinical trials before officially administered and used for protection and the WHO together with its partners are working relentlessly to discover, manufacture, and distribute safe and effective vaccinations.