{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0374037403740374, 'fraction_numerical': 0.01595159515951595, 'mean_word_length': 4.925081433224756, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Recent developments and opportunities in fighting COVID-19



COVID-19, a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARSCov-
2), was first diagnosed in the patients from Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Within a couple
of months of infection, it was declared as pandemic by the World health organization.
COVID-19 has become the most contagious infection with a serious threat to global health. In this
review, we aimed to discuss the pathogenesis, diagnostics, current treatments and potential
vaccines for COVID-19.



An extensive literature search was conducted using keywords “COVID-19”; “Coronavirus”;
“SARS-Cov-2”; “SARS” in public domains of Google, Google scholar, PubMed, and ScienceDirect.
Selected articles were used to construct this review.



SARS-Cov-2 uses the Spike (S) protein on its surface to recognize the receptor on angiotensin-
converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and bind with 10-folds greater affinity than SARS-Cov-1.
Molecular assays and immunoassays are the most frequently used tests, whereas computed tomography
(CT) scans and artificial intelligence enabled diagnostic tools were also used in patients. In
therapeutic treatment, few drugs were repurposed and about 23 therapeutic molecules, including
the repurposed drugs are at different stages of the clinical trial. Similarly, the development of
vaccines is also in the pipeline. Few countries have managed well to contain the spread by rapid
testing and identifying the clusters.



Till now, the acute complications and mortality of COVID-19 have been linked to
pre-existing comorbid conditions or age. Besides the development of therapeutic strategies that include
drugs and vaccine, the long term implication of COVID-19 infection in terms of the disorder/
disability in the cured/discharged patients is a new area to investigate.
