Outbreak of COVID-19: An update on the status of the evolving mechanism with possible diagnostic, therapeutics, and future directions

Abstract

The new Coronavirus, officially designated as SARS-CoV-2 has caused a pandemic with a global spread to more than 216 countries, areas, or territories 17,106,007 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 668,910 deaths, reported to WHO as of 4:39 pm CEST, 31 July 2020. This virus has been found to have striking similarity with the SARS CoV, which caused an epidemic earlier. Symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, myalgia, dyspnoea, and rarely vomiting and diarrhoea. Diagnostic with the help of serological and molecular methods are currently possible, along with CT scans and Chest X Rays for the early detection. Bioinformatics tools are now helping us in mapping the infection dynamics with increased accuracy and are helping us establish a chain of progression of the virus. With research rapidly expanding, new facts have come into the focus and WHO has started a SOLIDARITY program, which helps in randomised drug trials with better validity aided by measures taken by WHO and use of technology. Nevertheless, novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is one of the deadliest viruses' humanity has encountered, causing not just biological, but also impacting the world economy. This review has all the information about COVID-19 such as its virology, epidemiology, clinical aspects, diagnosis, possible treatment, and prevention. This study also emphasised on the future direction that could be computational drug screening & vaccine designing using Immunoinformatics approach to save time and cost to come out with potential treatments. Drug screening from cell lines and plasma therapy may prove highly effective to treat COVID-19 patients.