Recent Advancements on COVID-19: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Over the last few decades, there have been several global outbreaks of severe respiratory infections. The causes of these outbreaks were coronaviruses that had infected birds, mammals and humans. The outbreaks predominantly caused respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract symptoms and other mild to very severe clinical signs. The current coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a rapidly spreading illness affecting millions of people worldwide. Among the countries most affected by the disease are the United States of America (USA), India, Brazil, and Russia, with France recording the highest infection, morbidity, and mortality rates. Since early January 2021, thousands of articles have been published on COVID-19. Most of these articles were consistent with the reports on the mode of transmission, spread, duration, and severity of the sickness. Thus, this review comprehensively discusses the most critical aspects of COVID-19, including etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical signs, transmission, pathological changes, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control, and vaccination.