Abstract
A newly emerged respiratory viral disease called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is also known as pandemic coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This pandemic has resulted an unprecedented global health crisis and devastating impact on several sectors of human lives and economies. Fortunately, the average case fatality ratio for SARS-CoV-2 is below 2%, much lower than that estimated for MERS (34%) and SARS (11%). However, COVID-19 has a much higher transmissibility rate, as evident from the constant increase in the count of infections worldwide. This article explores the reasons behind how COVID-19 was able to cause a global pandemic crisis. The current outbreak scenario and causes of rapid global spread are examined using recent developments in the literature, epidemiological features relevant to public health awareness, and critical perspective of risk assessment and mitigation strategies. Effective pandemic risk mitigation measures have been established and amended against COVID-19 diseases, but there is still much scope for upgrading execution and coordination among authorities in terms of organizational leadership’s commitment and diverse range of safety measures, including administrative control measures, engineering control measures, and personal protective equipment (PPE). The significance of containment interventions against the COVID-19 pandemic is now well established; however, there is a need for its effective execution across the globe, and for the improvement of the performance of risk mitigation practices and suppression of future pandemic crises.
Highlights
Coronaviruses were generally not considered highly infectious to humans before2002; after the occurrence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (i.e., SARS; 2002) [1,2], Middle East respiratory syndrome (i.e., MERS; 2015) [3,4] and COVID-19 pandemic attracted serious attention of the scientific community and public health authorities.SARS-CoV-2 is the ninth known coronavirus to cause infections in humans, causes severe respiratory illness, and breathing discomfort
Some other possible airborne transmission routes for the SARS-CoV-2 virus may be a rare event via air medium containing solid particulate matter (PM), dust particles, and air pollutants; so far, it is supposed to be involved in coronavirus infection [74]
The World Health Organization (WHO)’s estimates on the ratio of deaths per total confirmed cases vary from 1 to 9%, while the world average Case Fatality Ratio (CFR) value for COVID-19 is about 3.4%, which is comparatively better than SARS (11%) and MERS
Summary
2002; after the occurrence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (i.e., SARS; 2002) [1,2], Middle East respiratory syndrome (i.e., MERS; 2015) [3,4] and COVID-19 pandemic attracted serious attention of the scientific community and public health authorities. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID-19 as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 The symptoms of this virus vary widely among individuals, with some patients being completely asymptomatic and others developing severe symptoms together with fever, cough, and fatigue [9]. This article covers the significance of risk assessment, which accounts for multiple epidemiological factors associated with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (e.g., host range, viral dose, surface survival rate, and some others). Our report emphasizes the efficacy of administrative and engineering controls and enforcing both public interventions, such as social distancing and vaccination and personal interventions, such as face masks These strategies would reduce the risk of further spread and would be relevant to almost all settings and unsettled contexts, including countries that need additional risk mitigation strategies, such as mass level vaccination, which seems unachievable in the near future
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