Coronavirus self quarantine prevention and control is the best solution. Researchers claims that new infected person of corona virus can infect 3.3 people on average.
Corona viruses belongs to a family of viruses which causes infections related to respiratory tract such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS).
Currently this virus is known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-Corona-2) and the disease caused by this virus is coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Corona virus disease is an illness caused by a virus named as corona virus.
Corona virus mainly affects our lungs and nasal pathways. World health organization (WHO) declared its official name as Covid-19 on 11 February 2020 due to its previously known as 2019 novel corona virus. WHO declared this disease is a pandemic in March 2020.
Symptoms
Major symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose and shortness of breath. People of older age are at high risk of this serious illness.
Origin of COVID-19 spread
Covid-19 spread originated from Wuhan city of China from seafood market. On December 31, many cases of pneumonia like symptoms have been reported of unknown cause at that time. Researchers in China started their research on this disease and trying to identify the cause of this disease.
On January 11, Chinese media reported its first death by this virus and that patient is the regular customer of that wet market of Wuhan, China. People from Wuhan city travel across the country and outside of the country and the spread of this virus begins.
In United States, the identification of first confirmed case of Covid-19 is bit difficult, since the flu virus which kills thousands of American every year, was already on boom in this time period.
At that time Chinese government has taken some serious measures to prevent spread of this disease by cancelling the planes, trains, subways, buses and all other vehicles of transportation.
Cases reported globally
Johns Hopkins University tracking the data from WHO for all the cases reported globally of COVID-19, according to latest figures 438,749 cases and 19,674 deaths, whereas 111,431 recovered cases have been reported worldwide, as on March 25, 2020.
Cases reported in Pakistan
1,026 cases and 07 deaths have been reported all over Pakistan (as on March 25, 2020).
First death by COVID-19 was reported in Mardan, KPK where a 50 yrs old person came back to Pakistan by completing his Umrah. Another death is also reported in Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar of 36yrs old person died by corona virus.
Total number of patients in Sindh 413, Punjab 312, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 80, Balochistan 119, and Gilgit Baltistan 82, as on 25th March 2020.
Pakistan Government initiatives to combat COVID-19
Government of Pakistan introduces “chatbot” for any updates regarding corona virus where information and data gathered about COVID-19.
Government banned all educational institutes, public places, gatherings and wedding halls all across Pakistan for the safety of the people. Medical experts committee has been designed by the government just to look up all the precautionary measures and ensure the safety of the citizens.
Social distancing and self quarantine prevention
Social distancing means avoid close contacts with others and stay safe at home. Social distancing helps out in slow down of spreading of this disease. Researchers claimed that new infected person of corona virus can infect 3.3 people on average. Social distancing is the only way to reduce this number in this hour of need.
Self quarantine prevention and self-isolation are one-other forms of social distancing. Self-quarantine is when you are protected, safe and happy but separate yourself from mass gatherings in order to reduce the exposure.
Self-isolation is when you have symptoms of COVID-19 and you do not want to get other people sick and affected. In this current situation, it’s better to stay at home and enjoy your self-quarantine lifestyle.
Coronavirus prevention and control
For coronavirus prevention and control clinical trials started in US on March 16, in this trail, 45 adults, between age of 18 and 55 years have been enrolled.
As there is no vaccine available in market for this disease, doctors and medical practitioners are giving anti-viral drugs such as Chloroquine, Favipiravir, Remdesivir and many others like these drugs just to control the attack of virus.
Besides these medications proper self-isolation is prescribed by the doctors for 14 days. Use of sanitizers, wearing of masks and proper hand wash is also prescribed.
Role of Pakistani researchers
Researcher of Attaur Rehman School of Applied Biosciences at NUST University successfully developed cheaper testing kits for the detection of corona virus. These kits perform assays including conventional and real-time PCR.
Another researcher group from Punjab University developed a much cheaper testing kit of coronavirus. Vice-chancellor of Punjab University announced that the free of cost of testing facility of coronavirus patients will be performed.
Author is a research scholar at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat, Pakistan.