ABSTRACT

In December 2019, several cases of severe pneumonia were identified in Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei province. Upon further investigation, the pathogen causing these symptoms was identified and named as SARS-CoV-2 and the disease was given the name COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. Being able to spread rapidly through respiratory droplets and capable of asymptomatic transmission, COVID-19 became a health concern of a global scale in a matter of months. The most common signs and symptoms of COVID-19 patients at hospital admission are fever, dry cough, and dyspnea. Most people experience the disease with mild symptoms but in more severe cases these can develop into pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. In this review, we aim to summarize the current information over COVID-19 and its causative agent SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, pandemic