IMR Press / FBE / Volume 13 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.52586/E884
Open Access Review
COVID-19: morphology and mechanism of the SARS-CoV-2, global outbreak, medication, vaccines and future of the virus
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1 Department of Botany, Dinabandhu Andrews College, Garia, Kolkata, 700084 West Bengal, India
2 Department of Botany, Vivekananda College, Thakurpukur, Kolkata, 700063 West Bengal, India
*Correspondence: jsarkar80@gmail.com (Joy Sarkar)
These authors contributed equally.
Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2021, 13(2), 272–290; https://doi.org/10.52586/E884
Submitted: 1 March 2021 | Revised: 8 May 2021 | Accepted: 12 May 2021 | Published: 20 December 2021
Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by BRI.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Abstract

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a lethal virus that was detected back on 31st December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province in China, and since then this virus has been spreading across the globe causing a global outbreak and has left the world fighting against the virus. The disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 was named COVID-19 and this was declared a pandemic disease by the World Health Organization on 11th March 2020. Several nations are trying to develop a vaccine that can save millions of lives. This review outlines the morphological features of the virus describing the outer and inner structures of the virus along with the entry mechanism of the virus into the host body and the infection process. Detailed reports of global outbreak along with preventive measures have also been included, with special emphasis on China, the United States of America, India, Italy, and South Korea. Broad-spectrum antiviral drugs being used at various health care centres around the world, namely Remdesivir, Camostat & Nafamostat, Famotidine, Chloroquine & Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir/ritonavir, Ivermectin, and Tocilizumab & Sarilumab have also been included. World Health Organization guidelines on preventive measures and use of soaps, alcohol-based hand-rubs and wearing face masks have also been described. The vaccines that are in one of the phases of human trials, namely Oxford University’s vaccine, the United States-based Moderna’s vaccine, India’s Covaxin and the Russian vaccine, have also been incorporated in the review article.

Keywords
COVID-19
Global outbreak
Morphology
Oxford’s vaccine
Remdesivir
SARS-CoV-2
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