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Persuasive Essay About Covid19

How to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid19 | Examples & Tips

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Are you looking to write a persuasive essay about the Covid-19 pandemic?

Writing a compelling and informative essay about this global crisis can be challenging. It requires researching the latest information, understanding the facts, and presenting your argument persuasively.

But don’t worry! with some guidance from experts, you’ll be able to write an effective and persuasive essay about Covid-19.

In this blog post, we’ll outline the basics of writing a persuasive essay . We’ll provide clear examples, helpful tips, and essential information for crafting your own persuasive piece on Covid-19.

Read on to get started on your essay.

• 1. Steps to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19
• 2. Examples of Persuasive Essay About COVID-19
• 3. Examples of Persuasive Essay About COVID-19 Vaccine
• 4. Examples of Persuasive Essay About COVID-19 Integration
• 5. Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid 19
• 6. Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19
• 7. Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19
• 8. Common Topics for a Persuasive Essay on COVID-19 

Steps to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Here are the steps to help you write a persuasive essay on this topic, along with an example essay:

Step 1: Choose a Specific Thesis Statement

Your thesis statement should clearly state your position on a specific aspect of COVID-19. It should be debatable and clear. For example:

Step 2: Research and Gather Information

Collect reliable and up-to-date information from reputable sources to support your thesis statement. This may include statistics, expert opinions, and scientific studies. For instance:

• COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness data
• Information on vaccine mandates in different countries
• Expert statements from health organizations like the WHO or CDC

Step 3: Outline Your Essay

Create a clear and organized outline to structure your essay. A persuasive essay typically follows this structure:

• Introduction
• Background Information
• Body Paragraphs (with supporting evidence)
• Counterarguments (addressing opposing views)

Step 4: Write the Introduction

In the introduction, grab your reader's attention and present your thesis statement. For example:

Step 5: Provide Background Information

Offer context and background information to help your readers understand the issue better. For instance:

Step 6: Develop Body Paragraphs

Each body paragraph should present a single point or piece of evidence that supports your thesis statement. Use clear topic sentences , evidence, and analysis. Here's an example:

Step 7: Address Counterarguments

Acknowledge opposing viewpoints and refute them with strong counterarguments. This demonstrates that you've considered different perspectives. For example:

Step 8: Write the Conclusion

Summarize your main points and restate your thesis statement in the conclusion. End with a strong call to action or thought-provoking statement. For instance:

Step 9: Revise and Proofread

Edit your essay for clarity, coherence, grammar, and spelling errors. Ensure that your argument flows logically.

Step 10: Cite Your Sources

Include proper citations and a bibliography page to give credit to your sources.

Remember to adjust your approach and arguments based on your target audience and the specific angle you want to take in your persuasive essay about COVID-19.

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Examples of Persuasive Essay About COVID-19

When writing a persuasive essay about the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to consider how you want to present your argument. To help you get started, here are some example essays for you to read:

Here is another example explaining How COVID-19 has changed our lives essay:

Let’s look at another sample essay:

Check out some more PDF examples below:

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Pandemic

Sample Of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 In The Philippines - Example

If you're in search of a compelling persuasive essay on business, don't miss out on our “ persuasive essay about business ” blog!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About COVID-19 Vaccine

Covid19 vaccines are one of the ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but they have been a source of controversy. Different sides argue about the benefits or dangers of the new vaccines. Whatever your point of view is, writing a persuasive essay about it is a good way of organizing your thoughts and persuading others.

A persuasive essay about the COVID-19 vaccine could consider the benefits of getting vaccinated as well as the potential side effects.

Below are some examples of persuasive essays on getting vaccinated for Covid-19.

Covid19 Vaccine Persuasive Essay

Persuasive Essay on Covid Vaccines

Interested in thought-provoking discussions on abortion? Read our persuasive essay about abortion blog to eplore arguments!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About COVID-19 Integration

Covid19 has drastically changed the way people interact in schools, markets, and workplaces. In short, it has affected all aspects of life. However, people have started to learn to live with Covid19.

Writing a persuasive essay about it shouldn't be stressful. Read the sample essay below to get an idea for your own essay about Covid19 integration.

Persuasive Essay About Working From Home During Covid19

Searching for the topic of Online Education? Our persuasive essay about online education is a must-read.

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid 19

Covid-19 has been an ever-evolving issue, with new developments and discoveries being made on a daily basis.

Writing an argumentative essay about such an issue is both interesting and challenging. It allows you to evaluate different aspects of the pandemic, as well as consider potential solutions.

Here are some examples of argumentative essays on Covid19.

Argumentative Essay About Covid19 Sample

Argumentative Essay About Covid19 With Introduction Body and Conclusion

Looking for a persuasive take on the topic of smoking? You'll find it all related arguments in out Persuasive Essay About Smoking blog!

Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19

Do you need to prepare a speech about Covid19 and need examples? We have them for you!

Persuasive speeches about Covid-19 can provide the audience with valuable insights on how to best handle the pandemic. They can be used to advocate for specific changes in policies or simply raise awareness about the virus.

Check out some examples of persuasive speeches on Covid-19:

Persuasive Speech About Covid-19 Example

Persuasive Speech About Vaccine For Covid-19

You can also read persuasive essay examples on other topics to master your persuasive techniques!

Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Writing a persuasive essay about COVID-19 requires a thoughtful approach to present your arguments effectively. 

Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling persuasive essay on this topic:

• Choose a Specific Angle: Narrow your focus to a specific aspect of COVID-19, like vaccination or public health measures.
• Provide Credible Sources: Support your arguments with reliable sources like scientific studies and government reports.
• Use Persuasive Language: Employ ethos, pathos, and logos , and use vivid examples to make your points relatable.
• Organize Your Essay: Create a solid persuasive essay outline and ensure a logical flow, with each paragraph focusing on a single point.
• Emphasize Benefits: Highlight how your suggestions can improve public health, safety, or well-being.
• Use Visuals: Incorporate graphs, charts, and statistics to reinforce your arguments.
• Call to Action: End your essay conclusion with a strong call to action, encouraging readers to take a specific step.
• Revise and Edit: Proofread for grammar, spelling, and clarity, ensuring smooth writing flow.
• Seek Feedback: Have someone else review your essay for valuable insights and improvements.

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Common Topics for a Persuasive Essay on COVID-19 

Here are some persuasive essay topics on COVID-19:

• The Importance of Vaccination Mandates for COVID-19 Control
• Balancing Public Health and Personal Freedom During a Pandemic
• The Economic Impact of Lockdowns vs. Public Health Benefits
• The Role of Misinformation in Fueling Vaccine Hesitancy
• Remote Learning vs. In-Person Education: What's Best for Students?
• The Ethics of Vaccine Distribution: Prioritizing Vulnerable Populations
• The Mental Health Crisis Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
• The Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Healthcare Systems
• Global Cooperation vs. Vaccine Nationalism in Fighting the Pandemic
• The Future of Telemedicine: Expanding Healthcare Access Post-COVID-19

In search of more inspiring topics for your next persuasive essay? Our persuasive essay topics blog has plenty of ideas!

To sum it up,

You have read good sample essays and got some helpful tips. You now have the tools you needed to write a persuasive essay about Covid-19. So don't let the doubts stop you, start writing!

If you need professional writing help, don't worry! We've got that for you as well.

MyPerfectWords.com is a professional persuasive essay writing service that can help you craft an excellent persuasive essay on Covid-19. Our experienced essay writer will create a well-structured, insightful paper in no time!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good title for a covid-19 essay.

A good title for a COVID-19 essay should be clear, engaging, and reflective of the essay's content. Examples include:

• "The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Health"
• "How COVID-19 Has Transformed Our Daily Lives"
• "COVID-19: Lessons Learned and Future Implications"

How do I write an informative essay about COVID-19?

To write an informative essay about COVID-19, follow these steps:

• Choose a specific focus: Select a particular aspect of COVID-19, such as its transmission, symptoms, or vaccines.
• Research thoroughly: Gather information from credible sources like scientific journals and official health organizations.
• Organize your content: Structure your essay with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• Present facts clearly: Use clear, concise language to convey information accurately.
• Include visuals: Use charts or graphs to illustrate data and make your essay more engaging.

How do I write an expository essay about COVID-19?

To write an expository essay about COVID-19, follow these steps:

• Select a clear topic: Focus on a specific question or issue related to COVID-19.
• Conduct thorough research: Use reliable sources to gather information.
• Create an outline: Organize your essay with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• Explain the topic: Use facts and examples to explain the chosen aspect of COVID-19 in detail.
• Maintain objectivity: Present information in a neutral and unbiased manner.
• Edit and revise: Proofread your essay for clarity, coherence, and accuracy.

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How to write an essay on coronavirus (COVID-19)

(Last updated: 10 November 2021)

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With the coronavirus pandemic affecting every aspect of our lives for the last 18 months, it is no surprise that it has become a common topic in academic assignments. Writing a COVID-19 essay can be challenging, whether you're studying biology, philosophy, or any course in between.

Your first question might be, how would an essay about a pandemic be any different from a typical academic essay? Well, the answer is that in many ways it is largely similar. The key difference, however, is that this pandemic is much more current than usual academic topics. That means that it may be difficult to rely on past research to demonstrate your argument! As a result, COVID-19 essay writing needs to balance theories of past scholars with very current data (that is constantly changing).

In this post, we are going to give you our top tips on how to write a coronavirus academic essay, so that you are able to approach your writing with confidence and produce a great piece of work.

1. Do background reading

Critical reading is an essential component for any essay, but the question is – what should you be reading for a coronavirus essay? It might seem like a silly question, but the choices that you make during the reading process may determine how well you actually do on the paper. Therefore, we recommend the following steps.

First, read (and re-read) the assignment prompt that you have been given by the instructor. If you write an excellent essay, but it is off topic, you’ll likely be marked down. Make notes on the words that explain what is being asked of you – perhaps the essay asks you to “analyse”, “describe”, “list”, or “evaluate”. Make sure that these same words actually appear in your paper.

Second, look for specific things you have been instructed to do. This might include using themes from your textbook or incorporating assigned readings. Make a note of these things and read them first. Remember to take good notes while you read.

Once you have done your course readings, the question then becomes: what types of external readings are you going to need? Typically, at this point, you are going to be left with newspapers/websites, and a few scholarly articles (books on coronavirus might not be readily available at this stage, but could still be useful!). If it is a research essay, you are likely going to need to rely on a variety of sources as you work through this assignment. This might seem different than other academic writing where you would typically focus on only peer-reviewed articles or books. With coronavirus essays, there is a need for a more diverse set of sources, including;

Newspaper articles and websites

Just like with academic articles, not all newspaper articles and/or websites are created equal. Further, there are likely to be a variety of different statistics released, as the way that countries calculate coronavirus cases, deaths, and other components of the virus are not always the same.

Try to pick sources that are reputable. This might be reports done by key governmental organisations or even the World Health Organisation. If you are reading through an article and can identify obvious areas of bias, you may need to find alternate readings for your paper.

Academic articles

You may be surprised to discover the variety of articles published so far on COVID-19 - a lot can be achieved over multiple lockdowns! The research that has been done has been fairly extensive, covering a broad range of topics. Therefore, when preparing to write your academic essay, make sure to check the literature frequently as new publications are being released all the time.

If you do a search and you cannot find anything on the coronavirus specifically, you will have to widen your search. Think about the topic more widely. Are there theories that you have learned about in your classes that you can link to academic articles? Surely the answer must be yes! Just because there is limited research on this topic does not mean that you should avoid academic articles all together. Relying solely on websites or newspapers can lead you to a biased piece of writing, which usually is not what an academic essay is all about.

2. Plan your essay

Brainstorming.

Taking the time to brainstorm out your ideas can be the first step in a super successful essay. Brainstorming does not have to take a lot of time, and can be done in about 20 minutes if you have already done some background reading on the topic.

First, figure out how many points you need to identify. Each point is likely to equate to one paragraph of your paper, so if you are writing a 1500-word essay (and you use 300 words for the introduction and conclusion) you will be left with 1200 words, which means you will need between 5-6 paragraphs (and 5-6 points).

Start with a blank piece of paper. In the middle of the paper write the question or statement that you are trying to answer. From there, draw 5 or 6 lines out from the centre. At the end of each of these lines will be a point you want to address in your essay. From here, write down any additional ideas that you have.

It might look messy, but that’s OK! This is just the first step in the process and an opportunity for you to get your ideas down on paper. From this messiness, you can easily start to form a logical and linear outline that will soon become the template for your essay.

Creating an outline

Once you have a completed brainstorm, the next step is to put your ideas into a logical format The first step in this process is usually to write out a rough draft of the argument you are attempting to make. In doing this, you are then able to see how your subsequent paragraphs are addressing this topic (and if they are not addressing the topic, now is the time to change this!).

Once you have a position/argument/thesis statement, create space for your body paragraphs, but numbering each section. Then, write a rough draft of the topic sentence that you think will fit well in that section. Once you have done this, pull up the coronavirus articles, data, and other reports that you have read. Determine where each will fit best in your paper (and exclude the ones that do not fit well). Put a citation of the document in each paragraph section (this will make it easier to construct your reference list at the end).

Once every paragraph is organised, double check to make sure they are all still on track to address your main thesis. At this point you are ready to write an excellent and well-organised COVID-19 essay!

3. Structure your paragraphs

When structuring an academic essay on COVID-19, there will be a need to balance the news, evidence from academic articles, and course theory. This adds an extra layer of complexity because there are just so many things to juggle.

One strategy that can be helpful is to structure all your paragraphs in the same way. Now, you might be thinking, how boring! In reality, it is likely that the reader will appreciate the fact that you have carefully thought out your process and how you are going to approach this essay.

How to design your essay paragraphs

• Create a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a sentence that presents the main idea for the paragraph. Usually it links back to your thesis, argument, or position.
• Start to introduce your evidence. Use the next sentence in your introduction as a bridge between the topic sentence and the evidence/data you are going to present.
• Add evidence. Take 2-4 sentences to give the reader some good information that supports your topic sentence. This can be statistics, details from an empirical study, information from a news article, or some other form of information.
• Give some critical thought. It is essential to make a connection for the reader between your evidence and your topic sentence. Tell the reader why the information you have presented is important.
• Provide a concluding sentence. Make sure you wrap up your argument or transition to the next one.

4. Write your essay

Keep it academic.

There is a lot of information available about the coronavirus, but because much of it is coming from newspaper articles, the evidence that you might use for your paper can be skewed. In order to keep your paper academic, it is best to maintain a professional and academic style.

Present statistics from reputable sources (like the World Health Organisation), rather than those that have been selected by third parties. Furthermore, if you are writing a COVID-19 essay that is about a specific region (e.g. the United Kingdom), make sure that your statistics and evidence also come from this region.

Use up-to-date sources

The information on coronavirus is constantly changing. By now, everyone has seen the exponential curve of cases reoccurring all over the world at different times. Therefore, what was true last month may not necessarily be the case now. This can be challenging when you are planning an essay, because your outline from a previous week may need to be modified.

There are a number of ways you can address this. One way is, obviously, to continue going back and refreshing the data. Another way, which can be equally useful, is to outline the scope of the problem in your paper, writing something like, “data on COVID-19 is constantly changing, but the data presented was accurate at the time of writing”.

Avoid personal bias or opinion (unless asked!)

Everybody has an opinion – this opinion can often relate to how you or your family members have been affected by the pandemic (and the government response to this). People have lost jobs, have had to avoid family/friends, or have lost someone as a result of this pandemic. Life, for many, is very different.

While all of this is extremely important, it may not necessarily be relevant for an academic essay. One of the more challenging components of this type of academic paper is to try and remove yourself from the evidence you are providing. Now… there are exceptions. If you are writing a COVID-19 reflective essay, then it is your responsibility to include your opinion; otherwise, do your best to remain objective.

Avoid personal pronouns

Along the same lines as avoiding bias, it is also a good idea to avoid personal pronouns in your academic essay (except in a reflection, of course). This means avoiding words like “I, we, our, my”. While you may agree (or disagree) with the sentiment you are presenting, try and present your information from a distanced perspective.

Proofread carefully

Finally (and this is true of any essay), make sure that you take the time to proofread your essay carefully. Is it free from spelling errors? Have you checked the grammar? Have you made sure that your references are correct and in order? Have you carefully reviewed the submission requirements of your instructor (e.g. font, margins, spacing, etc.)? If the answer is yes, it sounds as if you are finally ready to submit your essay.

Final thoughts

Writing an essay is not easy. Writing an essay on a pandemic while living in that same pandemic is even more difficult.

A good essay is appropriately structured with a clear purpose and is presented according to the recommended guidelines. Unless it is a personal reflection, it attempts to present information as if it were free from bias.

So before you start to panic about having to write an essay about a pandemic, take a breath. You can do this. Take all the same steps as you would in a conventional academic essay, but expand your search to include relevant and up-to-date information that you know will make your essay a success. Once you have done this, make sure to have your university writing centre or an academic at Oxbridge Essays check it over and make suggestions! Now, stop reading and get writing! Good luck.

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More From Forbes

A guide to writing the covid-19 essay for the common app.

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Students can use the Common App's new Covid-19 essay to expand on their experiences during the ... [+] pandemic.

Covid-19 has heavily impacted students applying to colleges in this application cycle. High schools have gone virtual, extracurricular activities have been canceled and family situations might have changed. Having recognized this, the Common App added a new optional 250-word essay that will give universities a chance to understand the atypical high school experience students have had. The prompt will be: 

“Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces.”

Should I Write About The Coronavirus Pandemic?

For many high schoolers, the pandemic will have had a lasting impact on their education and everyday lives. Some students might have had a negative experience: a parent laid off or furloughed, limited access to online classes or a family member (or the student) having fallen ill from the virus. 

Other students might have had the opposite experience. Even though they might have undergone a few negative events or stressful times, they might have learned something new, started a new project or gained a new perspective that changed their future major or career choice. 

If you fit into either of these categories, writing the optional essay might be a good idea. 

Remember, the admission officers have also been dealing with the crisis and understand the situation students are going through. They are well aware that the AP exams were administered remotely, SAT/ACT test dates were canceled and numerous schools transitioned to a virtual learning model. There is likely no need to reiterate this in an essay unless there was a direct impact on an aspect of your application.

Russian Troops Captured One Of Ukraine’s Dutch Armored Vehicles, Rode It Back Into Battle—And Promptly Got Killed

Netflix’s best new mystery crime show has a perfect 100% critic score, forget the fed—china could be about to drop a $420 billion bitcoin and crypto price bombshell, what not to write .

As with every college essay you write, it is important to think about the tone and word choice. You want to remain sensitive to the plight of other students during this global crisis. While every student has likely been affected by the pandemic, the level of impact will vary greatly. For some, classes moved online, but life remained more or less the same. For these types of students, it might not be a strategic move to write about the coronavirus if you don’t have anything meaningful, unique or personal to say. If you only have a limited time to impress the admission officer, you want to ensure that each word is strategically thought out and showcases a new aspect of your personality. 

Using this space as a time to complain about how you weren’t able to go to the beach, see friends or eat out could be seen as you flaunting your privilege. Careful consideration of how you portray yourself will be key. 

Nearly every student has had an activity or event canceled. It likely won’t be a good use of your word count lamenting on the missed opportunities. Instead, it would be more illuminating to talk about how you remained flexible and pivoted to other learning opportunities.  

How To Write The Covid-19 Essay

The Covid-19 essay was introduced so universities could gain a better understanding of how their applicants have had their lives and education disrupted due to the pandemic. You’ll want to give the admission officers context to understand your experiences better. 

Here are some examples of how to write this optional essay. 

• Outline any extenuating circumstances related to Covid-19. Some students might find themselves crammed in a small apartment or home with their entire family. This disruptive environment might have made it difficult for the student to concentrate on their classes. Some students might be required to care for younger siblings during the day. In many areas of the country, lack of access to high-speed internet or smart devices meant that students couldn’t participate in online learning. Now is the time to share those details. 
• Include the impact. Ultimately, this essay is about you. Things likely happened to family members, friends or your community, but you need to show how it altered your life specifically. 
• Provide specific details. Give the admission officers a peek into your everyday life. Including specific details can help make your story come alive. For example, don’t just say that it was hard dealing with the emotional trauma of seeing friends and family fall ill. Instead, be specific and talk about how your friend was diagnosed with Covid-19 and had to be hospitalized. Seeing the long-term effects caused you to take the pandemic much more seriously and moved you to take action. Perhaps you were inspired to start a nonprofit that makes masks or to help your neighbors through this difficult time. 

Covid-19 Essay for School Counselors 

It’s not just students who will get to submit an additional statement regarding the impact of the coronavirus: Counselors will also get a chance to submit a 500-word essay. Their prompt will be: 

Your school may have made adjustments due to community disruptions such as COVID–19 or natural disasters. If you have not already addressed those changes in your uploaded school profile or elsewhere, you can elaborate here. Colleges are especially interested in understanding changes to:

• Grading scales and policies
• Graduation requirements
• Instructional methods
• Schedules and course offerings
• Testing requirements
• Your academic calendar
• Other extenuating circumstances

The counselor’s response will populate to all the applications of students from the high school. They will cover any school or district policies that have impacted students. No specific student details will be included. 

Students can ask to see a copy of this statement so they know what information has already been shared with colleges. For example, if the school states that classes went virtual starting in March, you don’t need to repeat that in your Covid-19 essay. 

Should I Write About The Covid-19 In My Personal Statement?

The world before Covid-19 might seem like a distant memory, but you did spend more than 15 years engaging in a multitude of meaningful activities and developing your passions. It’s important to define yourself from more than just the coronavirus crisis. You likely will want to spend the personal statement distinguishing yourself from other applicants. With the Covid-19 optional essay and the additional information section, you should have plenty of space to talk about how you’ve changed—for better or for worse—due to the pandemic. Use the personal statement to talk about who you were before quarantining.

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Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

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For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

• The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
• The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
• The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
• Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

• Are my experiences different from others’?
• Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
• Am I aware of my privilege?
• Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
• Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

• Grading scales and policies
• Graduation requirements
• Instructional methods
• Schedules and course offerings
• Testing requirements
• Your academic calendar
• Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

• One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
• One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
• Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

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How to Write About the Impact of the Coronavirus in a College Essay

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many -- a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

[ Read: How to Write a College Essay. ]

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

[ Read: What Colleges Look for: 6 Ways to Stand Out. ]

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them -- and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

[ Read: The Common App: Everything You Need to Know. ]

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic -- and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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Essay On Covid-19: 100, 200 and 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Apr 30, 2024

COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is a global pandemic that has affected people all around the world. It first emerged in a lab in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and quickly spread to countries around the world. This virus was reportedly caused by SARS-CoV-2. Since then, it has spread rapidly to many countries, causing widespread illness and impacting our lives in numerous ways. This blog talks about the details of this virus and also drafts an essay on COVID-19 in 100, 200 and 300 words for students and professionals. 

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay On COVID-19 in English 100 Words
• 2 Essay On COVID-19 in 200 Words
• 3 Essay On COVID-19 in 300 Words
• 4 Short Essay on Covid-19

Essay On COVID-19 in English 100 Words

COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, is a global pandemic. It started in late 2019 and has affected people all around the world. The virus spreads very quickly through someone’s sneeze and respiratory issues.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on our lives, with lockdowns, travel restrictions, and changes in daily routines. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, we should wear masks, practice social distancing, and wash our hands frequently. 

People should follow social distancing and other safety guidelines and also learn the tricks to be safe stay healthy and work the whole challenging time. 

Also Read: National Safe Motherhood Day 2023

Essay On COVID-19 in 200 Words

COVID-19 also known as coronavirus, became a global health crisis in early 2020 and impacted mankind around the world. This virus is said to have originated in Wuhan, China in late 2019. It belongs to the coronavirus family and causes flu-like symptoms. It impacted the healthcare systems, economies and the daily lives of people all over the world. 

The most crucial aspect of COVID-19 is its highly spreadable nature. It is a communicable disease that spreads through various means such as coughs from infected persons, sneezes and communication. Due to its easy transmission leading to its outbreaks, there were many measures taken by the government from all over the world such as Lockdowns, Social Distancing, and wearing masks. 

There are many changes throughout the economic systems, and also in daily routines. Other measures such as schools opting for Online schooling, Remote work options available and restrictions on travel throughout the country and internationally. Subsequently, to cure and top its outbreak, the government started its vaccine campaigns, and other preventive measures. 

In conclusion, COVID-19 tested the patience and resilience of the mankind. This pandemic has taught people the importance of patience, effort and humbleness. 

Also Read : Essay on My Best Friend

Essay On COVID-19 in 300 Words

COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, is a serious and contagious disease that has affected people worldwide. It was first discovered in late 2019 in Cina and then got spread in the whole world. It had a major impact on people’s life, their school, work and daily lives. 

COVID-19 is primarily transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets produced and through sneezes, and coughs of an infected person. It can spread to thousands of people because of its highly contagious nature. To cure the widespread of this virus, there are thousands of steps taken by the people and the government. 

Wearing masks is one of the essential precautions to prevent the virus from spreading. Social distancing is another vital practice, which involves maintaining a safe distance from others to minimize close contact.

Very frequent handwashing is also very important to stop the spread of this virus. Proper hand hygiene can help remove any potential virus particles from our hands, reducing the risk of infection. 

In conclusion, the Coronavirus has changed people’s perspective on living. It has also changed people’s way of interacting and how to live. To deal with this virus, it is very important to follow the important guidelines such as masks, social distancing and techniques to wash your hands. Getting vaccinated is also very important to go back to normal life and cure this virus completely.

Also Read: Essay on Abortion in English in 650 Words

Short Essay on Covid-19

Please find below a sample of a short essay on Covid-19 for school students:

Also Read: Essay on Women’s Day in 200 and 500 words

to write an essay on COVID-19, understand your word limit and make sure to cover all the stages and symptoms of this disease. You need to highlight all the challenges and impacts of COVID-19. Do not forget to conclude your essay with positive precautionary measures.

Writing an essay on COVID-19 in 200 words requires you to cover all the challenges, impacts and precautions of this disease. You don’t need to describe all of these factors in brief, but make sure to add as many options as your word limit allows.

The full form for COVID-19 is Corona Virus Disease of 2019.

Related Reads

Hence, we hope that this blog has assisted you in comprehending with an essay on COVID-19. For more information on such interesting topics, visit our essay writing page and follow Leverage Edu.

Simran Popli

An avid writer and a creative person. With an experience of 1.5 years content writing, Simran has worked with different areas. From medical to working in a marketing agency with different clients to Ed-tech company, the journey has been diverse. Creative, vivacious and patient are the words that describe her personality.

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I Thought We’d Learned Nothing From the Pandemic. I Wasn’t Seeing the Full Picture

M y first home had a back door that opened to a concrete patio with a giant crack down the middle. When my sister and I played, I made sure to stay on the same side of the divide as her, just in case. The 1988 film The Land Before Time was one of the first movies I ever saw, and the image of the earth splintering into pieces planted its roots in my brain. I believed that, even in my own backyard, I could easily become the tiny Triceratops separated from her family, on the other side of the chasm, as everything crumbled into chaos.

Some 30 years later, I marvel at the eerie, unexpected ways that cartoonish nightmare came to life – not just for me and my family, but for all of us. The landscape was already covered in fissures well before COVID-19 made its way across the planet, but the pandemic applied pressure, and the cracks broke wide open, separating us from each other physically and ideologically. Under the weight of the crisis, we scattered and landed on such different patches of earth we could barely see each other’s faces, even when we squinted. We disagreed viciously with each other, about how to respond, but also about what was true.

Recently, someone asked me if we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, and my first thought was a flat no. Nothing. There was a time when I thought it would be the very thing to draw us together and catapult us – as a capital “S” Society – into a kinder future. It’s surreal to remember those early days when people rallied together, sewing masks for health care workers during critical shortages and gathering on balconies in cities from Dallas to New York City to clap and sing songs like “Yellow Submarine.” It felt like a giant lightning bolt shot across the sky, and for one breath, we all saw something that had been hidden in the dark – the inherent vulnerability in being human or maybe our inescapable connectedness .

More from TIME

Read More: The Family Time the Pandemic Stole

But it turns out, it was just a flash. The goodwill vanished as quickly as it appeared. A couple of years later, people feel lied to, abandoned, and all on their own. I’ve felt my own curiosity shrinking, my willingness to reach out waning , my ability to keep my hands open dwindling. I look out across the landscape and see selfishness and rage, burnt earth and so many dead bodies. Game over. We lost. And if we’ve already lost, why try?

Still, the question kept nagging me. I wondered, am I seeing the full picture? What happens when we focus not on the collective society but at one face, one story at a time? I’m not asking for a bow to minimize the suffering – a pretty flourish to put on top and make the whole thing “worth it.” Yuck. That’s not what we need. But I wondered about deep, quiet growth. The kind we feel in our bodies, relationships, homes, places of work, neighborhoods.

Like a walkie-talkie message sent to my allies on the ground, I posted a call on my Instagram. What do you see? What do you hear? What feels possible? Is there life out here? Sprouting up among the rubble? I heard human voices calling back – reports of life, personal and specific. I heard one story at a time – stories of grief and distrust, fury and disappointment. Also gratitude. Discovery. Determination.

Among the most prevalent were the stories of self-revelation. Almost as if machines were given the chance to live as humans, people described blossoming into fuller selves. They listened to their bodies’ cues, recognized their desires and comforts, tuned into their gut instincts, and honored the intuition they hadn’t realized belonged to them. Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. “The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry myself have both shrunk and expanded,” she shared. “I don’t love myself very well with an audience.” Without the daily ritual of trying to pass as “normal” in public, Tamar, a queer mom in the Netherlands, realized she’s autistic. “I think the pandemic helped me to recognize the mask,” she wrote. “Not that unmasking is easy now. But at least I know it’s there.” In a time of widespread suffering that none of us could solve on our own, many tended to our internal wounds and misalignments, large and small, and found clarity.

Read More: A Tool for Staying Grounded in This Era of Constant Uncertainty

I wonder if this flourishing of self-awareness is at least partially responsible for the life alterations people pursued. The pandemic broke open our personal notions of work and pushed us to reevaluate things like time and money. Lucy, a disabled writer in the U.K., made the hard decision to leave her job as a journalist covering Westminster to write freelance about her beloved disability community. “This work feels important in a way nothing else has ever felt,” she wrote. “I don’t think I’d have realized this was what I should be doing without the pandemic.” And she wasn’t alone – many people changed jobs , moved, learned new skills and hobbies, became politically engaged.

Perhaps more than any other shifts, people described a significant reassessment of their relationships. They set boundaries, said no, had challenging conversations. They also reconnected, fell in love, and learned to trust. Jeanne, a quilter in Indiana, got to know relatives she wouldn’t have connected with if lockdowns hadn’t prompted weekly family Zooms. “We are all over the map as regards to our belief systems,” she emphasized, “but it is possible to love people you don’t see eye to eye with on every issue.” Anna, an anti-violence advocate in Maine, learned she could trust her new marriage: “Life was not a honeymoon. But we still chose to turn to each other with kindness and curiosity.” So many bonds forged and broken, strengthened and strained.

Instead of relying on default relationships or institutional structures, widespread recalibrations allowed for going off script and fortifying smaller communities. Mara from Idyllwild, Calif., described the tangible plan for care enacted in her town. “We started a mutual-aid group at the beginning of the pandemic,” she wrote, “and it grew so quickly before we knew it we were feeding 400 of the 4000 residents.” She didn’t pretend the conditions were ideal. In fact, she expressed immense frustration with our collective response to the pandemic. Even so, the local group rallied and continues to offer assistance to their community with help from donations and volunteers (many of whom were originally on the receiving end of support). “I’ve learned that people thrive when they feel their connection to others,” she wrote. Clare, a teacher from the U.K., voiced similar conviction as she described a giant scarf she’s woven out of ribbons, each representing a single person. The scarf is “a collection of stories, moments and wisdom we are sharing with each other,” she wrote. It now stretches well over 1,000 feet.

A few hours into reading the comments, I lay back on my bed, phone held against my chest. The room was quiet, but my internal world was lighting up with firefly flickers. What felt different? Surely part of it was receiving personal accounts of deep-rooted growth. And also, there was something to the mere act of asking and listening. Maybe it connected me to humans before battle cries. Maybe it was the chance to be in conversation with others who were also trying to understand – what is happening to us? Underneath it all, an undeniable thread remained; I saw people peering into the mess and narrating their findings onto the shared frequency. Every comment was like a flare into the sky. I’m here! And if the sky is full of flares, we aren’t alone.

I recognized my own pandemic discoveries – some minor, others massive. Like washing off thick eyeliner and mascara every night is more effort than it’s worth; I can transform the mundane into the magical with a bedsheet, a movie projector, and twinkle lights; my paralyzed body can mother an infant in ways I’d never seen modeled for me. I remembered disappointing, bewildering conversations within my own family of origin and our imperfect attempts to remain close while also seeing things so differently. I realized that every time I get the weekly invite to my virtual “Find the Mumsies” call, with a tiny group of moms living hundreds of miles apart, I’m being welcomed into a pocket of unexpected community. Even though we’ve never been in one room all together, I’ve felt an uncommon kind of solace in their now-familiar faces.

Hope is a slippery thing. I desperately want to hold onto it, but everywhere I look there are real, weighty reasons to despair. The pandemic marks a stretch on the timeline that tangles with a teetering democracy, a deteriorating planet , the loss of human rights that once felt unshakable . When the world is falling apart Land Before Time style, it can feel trite, sniffing out the beauty – useless, firing off flares to anyone looking for signs of life. But, while I’m under no delusions that if we just keep trudging forward we’ll find our own oasis of waterfalls and grassy meadows glistening in the sunshine beneath a heavenly chorus, I wonder if trivializing small acts of beauty, connection, and hope actually cuts us off from resources essential to our survival. The group of abandoned dinosaurs were keeping each other alive and making each other laugh well before they made it to their fantasy ending.

Read More: How Ice Cream Became My Own Personal Act of Resistance

After the monarch butterfly went on the endangered-species list, my friend and fellow writer Hannah Soyer sent me wildflower seeds to plant in my yard. A simple act of big hope – that I will actually plant them, that they will grow, that a monarch butterfly will receive nourishment from whatever blossoms are able to push their way through the dirt. There are so many ways that could fail. But maybe the outcome wasn’t exactly the point. Maybe hope is the dogged insistence – the stubborn defiance – to continue cultivating moments of beauty regardless. There is value in the planting apart from the harvest.

I can’t point out a single collective lesson from the pandemic. It’s hard to see any great “we.” Still, I see the faces in my moms’ group, making pancakes for their kids and popping on between strings of meetings while we try to figure out how to raise these small people in this chaotic world. I think of my friends on Instagram tending to the selves they discovered when no one was watching and the scarf of ribbons stretching the length of more than three football fields. I remember my family of three, holding hands on the way up the ramp to the library. These bits of growth and rings of support might not be loud or right on the surface, but that’s not the same thing as nothing. If we only cared about the bottom-line defeats or sweeping successes of the big picture, we’d never plant flowers at all.

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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

by Alissa Wilkinson

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

• The Vox guide to navigating the coronavirus crisis

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

• A syllabus for the end of the world

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

• What day is it today?

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

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In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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Alaka m. basu , amb alaka m. basu professor, department of global development - cornell university, senior fellow - united nations foundation kaushik basu , and kaushik basu nonresident senior fellow - global economy and development jose maria u. tapia jmut jose maria u. tapia student - cornell university.

November 17, 2020

• 13 min read

This essay is part of “ Reimagining the global economy: Building back better in a post-COVID-19 world ,” a collection of 12 essays presenting new ideas to guide policies and shape debates in a post-COVID-19 world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of public health systems worldwide, casting a shadow that we could not have imagined even a year ago. As the fog of confusion lifts and we begin to understand the rudiments of how the virus behaves, the end of the pandemic is nowhere in sight. The number of cases and the deaths continue to rise. The latter breached the 1 million mark a few weeks ago and it looks likely now that, in terms of severity, this pandemic will surpass the Asian Flu of 1957-58 and the Hong Kong Flu of 1968-69.

Moreover, a parallel problem may well exceed the direct death toll from the virus. We are referring to the growing economic crises globally, and the prospect that these may hit emerging economies especially hard.

The economic fall-out is not entirely the direct outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic but a result of how we have responded to it—what measures governments took and how ordinary people, workers, and firms reacted to the crisis. The government activism to contain the virus that we saw this time exceeds that in previous such crises, which may have dampened the spread of the COVID-19 but has extracted a toll from the economy.

This essay takes stock of the policies adopted by governments in emerging economies, and what effect these governance strategies may have had, and then speculates about what the future is likely to look like and what we may do here on.

Nations that build walls to keep out goods, people and talent will get out-competed by other nations in the product market.

It is becoming clear that the scramble among several emerging economies to imitate and outdo European and North American countries was a mistake. We get a glimpse of this by considering two nations continents apart, the economies of which have been among the hardest hit in the world, namely, Peru and India. During the second quarter of 2020, Peru saw an annual growth of -30.2 percent and India -23.9 percent. From the global Q2 data that have emerged thus far, Peru and India are among the four slowest growing economies in the world. Along with U.K and Tunisia these are the only nations that lost more than 20 percent of their GDP. 1

COVID-19-related mortality statistics, and, in particular, the Crude Mortality Rate (CMR), however imperfect, are the most telling indicator of the comparative scale of the pandemic in different countries. At first glance, from the end of October 2020, Peru, with 1039 COVID-19 deaths per million population looks bad by any standard and much worse than India with 88. Peru’s CMR is currently among the highest reported globally.

However, both Peru and India need to be placed in regional perspective. For reasons that are likely to do with the history of past diseases, there are striking regional differences in the lethality of the virus (Figure 11.1). South America is worse hit than any other world region, and Asia and Africa seem to have got it relatively lightly, in contrast to Europe and America. The stark regional difference cries out for more epidemiological analysis. But even as we await that, these are differences that cannot be ignored.

To understand the effect of policy interventions, it is therefore important to look at how these countries fare within their own regions, which have had similar histories of illnesses and viruses (Figure 11.2). Both Peru and India do much worse than the neighbors with whom they largely share their social, economic, ecological and demographic features. Peru’s COVID-19 mortality rate per million population, or CMR, of 1039 is ahead of the second highest, Brazil at 749, and almost twice that of Argentina at 679.

Similarly, India at 88 compares well with Europe and the U.S., as does virtually all of Asia and Africa, but is doing much worse than its neighbors, with the second worst country in the region, Afghanistan, experiencing less than half the death rate of India.

The official Indian statement that up to 78,000 deaths 2 were averted by the lockdown has been criticized 3 for its assumptions. A more reasonable exercise is to estimate the excess deaths experienced by a country that breaks away from the pattern of its regional neighbors. So, for example, if India had experienced Afghanistan’s COVID-19 mortality rate, it would by now have had 54,112 deaths. And if it had the rate reported by Bangladesh, it would have had 49,950 deaths from COVID-19 today. In other words, more than half its current toll of some 122,099 COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided if it had experienced the same virus hit as its neighbors.

What might explain this outlier experience of COVID-19 CMRs and economic downslide in India and Peru? If the regional background conditions are broadly similar, one is left to ask if it is in fact the policy response that differed markedly and might account for these relatively poor outcomes.

Peru and India have performed poorly in terms of GDP growth rate in Q2 2020 among the countries displayed in Table 2, and given that both these countries are often treated as case studies of strong governance, this draws attention to the fact that there may be a dissonance between strong governance and good governance.

The turnaround for India has been especially surprising, given that until a few years ago it was among the three fastest growing economies in the world. The slowdown began in 2016, though the sharp downturn, sharper than virtually all other countries, occurred after the lockdown.

On the COVID-19 policy front, both India and Peru have become known for what the Oxford University’s COVID Policy Tracker 4 calls the “stringency” of the government’s response to the epidemic. At 8 pm on March 24, 2020, the Indian government announced, with four hours’ notice, a complete nationwide shutdown. Virtually all movement outside the perimeter of one’s home was officially sought to be brought to a standstill. Naturally, as described in several papers, such as that of Ray and Subramanian, 5 this meant that most economic life also came to a sudden standstill, which in turn meant that hundreds of millions of workers in the informal, as well as more marginally formal sectors, lost their livelihoods.

In addition, tens of millions of these workers, being migrant workers in places far-flung from their original homes, also lost their temporary homes and their savings with these lost livelihoods, so that the only safe space that beckoned them was their place of origin in small towns and villages often hundreds of miles away from their places of work.

After a few weeks of precarious living in their migrant destinations, they set off, on foot since trains and buses had been stopped, for these towns and villages, creating a “lockdown and scatter” that spread the virus from the city to the town and the town to the village. Indeed, “lockdown” is a bit of a misnomer for what happened in India, since over 20 million people did exactly the opposite of what one does in a lockdown. Thus India had a strange combination of lockdown some and scatter the rest, like in no other country. They spilled out and scattered in ways they would otherwise not do. It is not surprising that the infection, which was marginally present in rural areas (23 percent in April), now makes up some 54 percent of all cases in India. 6

In Peru too, the lockdown was sudden, nationwide, long drawn out and stringent. 7 Jobs were lost, financial aid was difficult to disburse, migrant workers were forced to return home, and the virus has now spread to all parts of the country with death rates from it surpassing almost every other part of the world.

As an aside, to think about ways of implementing lockdowns that are less stringent and geographically as well as functionally less total, an example from yet another continent is instructive. Ethiopia, with a COVID-19 death rate of 13 per million population seems to have bettered the already relatively low African rate of 31 in Table 1. 8

We hope that human beings will emerge from this crisis more aware of the problems of sustainability.

The way forward

We next move from the immediate crisis to the medium term. Where is the world headed and how should we deal with the new world? Arguably, that two sectors that will emerge larger and stronger in the post-pandemic world are: digital technology and outsourcing, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

The last 9 months of the pandemic have been a huge training ground for people in the use of digital technology—Zoom, WebEx, digital finance, and many others. This learning-by-doing exercise is likely to give a big boost to outsourcing, which has the potential to help countries like India, the Philippines, and South Africa.

Globalization may see a short-run retreat but, we believe, it will come back with a vengeance. Nations that build walls to keep out goods, people and talent will get out-competed by other nations in the product market. This realization will make most countries reverse their knee-jerk anti-globalization; and the ones that do not will cease to be important global players. Either way, globalization will be back on track and with a much greater amount of outsourcing.

To return, more critically this time, to our earlier aside on Ethiopia, its historical and contemporary record on tampering with internet connectivity 9 in an attempt to muzzle inter-ethnic tensions and political dissent will not serve it well in such a post-pandemic scenario. This is a useful reminder for all emerging market economies.

We hope that human beings will emerge from this crisis more aware of the problems of sustainability. This could divert some demand from luxury goods to better health, and what is best described as “creative consumption”: art, music, and culture. 10 The former will mean much larger healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.

But to take advantage of these new opportunities, nations will need to navigate the current predicament so that they have a viable economy once the pandemic passes. Thus it is important to be able to control the pandemic while keeping the economy open. There is some emerging literature 11 on this, but much more is needed. This is a governance challenge of a kind rarely faced, because the pandemic has disrupted normal markets and there is need, at least in the short run, for governments to step in to fill the caveat.

Emerging economies will have to devise novel governance strategies for doing this double duty of tamping down on new infections without strident controls on economic behavior and without blindly imitating Europe and America.

Here is an example. One interesting opportunity amidst this chaos is to tap into the “resource” of those who have already had COVID-19 and are immune, even if only in the short-term—we still have no definitive evidence on the length of acquired immunity. These people can be offered a high salary to work in sectors that require physical interaction with others. This will help keep supply chains unbroken. Normally, the market would have on its own caused such a salary increase but in this case, the main benefit of marshaling this labor force is on the aggregate economy and GDP and therefore is a classic case of positive externality, which the free market does not adequately reward. It is more a challenge of governance. As with most economic policy, this will need careful research and design before being implemented. We have to be aware that a policy like this will come with its risk of bribery and corruption. There is also the moral hazard challenge of poor people choosing to get COVID-19 in order to qualify for these special jobs. Safeguards will be needed against these risks. But we believe that any government that succeeds in implementing an intelligently-designed intervention to draw on this huge, under-utilized resource can have a big, positive impact on the economy 12 .

This is just one idea. We must innovate in different ways to survive the crisis and then have the ability to navigate the new world that will emerge, hopefully in the not too distant future.

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Note: We are grateful for financial support from Cornell University’s Hatfield Fund for the research associated with this paper. We also wish to express our gratitude to Homi Kharas for many suggestions and David Batcheck for generous editorial help.

• “GDP Annual Growth Rate – Forecast 2020-2022,” Trading Economics, https://tradingeconomics.com/forecast/gdp-annual-growth-rate.
• “Government Cites Various Statistical Models, Says Averted Between 1.4 Million-2.9 Million Cases Due To Lockdown,” Business World, May 23, 2020, www.businessworld.in/article/Government-Cites-Various-Statistical-Models-Says-Averted-Between-1-4-million-2-9-million-Cases-Due-To-Lockdown/23-05-2020-193002/.
• Suvrat Raju, “Did the Indian lockdown avert deaths?” medRxiv , July 5, 2020, https://europepmc.org/article/ppr/ppr183813#A1.
• “COVID Policy Tracker,” Oxford University, https://github.com/OxCGRT/covid-policy-tracker t.
• Debraj Ray and S. Subramanian, “India’s Lockdown: An Interim Report,” NBER Working Paper, May 2020, https://www.nber.org/papers/w27282.
• Gopika Gopakumar and Shayan Ghosh, “Rural recovery could slow down as cases rise, says Ghosh,” Mint, August 19, 2020, https://www.livemint.com/news/india/rural-recovery-could-slow-down-as-cases-rise-says-ghosh-11597801644015.html.
• Pierina Pighi Bel and Jake Horton, “Coronavirus: What’s happening in Peru?,” BBC, July 9, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53150808.
• “No lockdown, few ventilators, but Ethiopia is beating Covid-19,” Financial Times, May 27, 2020, https://www.ft.com/content/7c6327ca-a00b-11ea-b65d-489c67b0d85d.
• Cara Anna, “Ethiopia enters 3rd week of internet shutdown after unrest,” Washington Post, July 14, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/ethiopia-enters-3rd-week-of-internet-shutdown-after-unrest/2020/07/14/4699c400-c5d6-11ea-a825-8722004e4150_story.html.
• Patrick Kabanda, The Creative Wealth of Nations: Can the Arts Advance Development? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
• Guanlin Li et al, “Disease-dependent interaction policies to support health and economic outcomes during the COVID-19 epidemic,” medRxiv, August 2020, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.24.20180752v3.
• For helpful discussion concerning this idea, we are grateful to Turab Hussain, Daksh Walia and Mehr-un-Nisa, during a seminar of South Asian Economics Students’ Meet (SAESM).

Global Economy and Development

Sam Boocker, David Wessel

August 23, 2024

Refet Gürkaynak

August 22, 2024

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COVID-19 pandemic crisis—a complete outline of SARS-CoV-2

Sana saffiruddin shaikh.

1 Y. B. Chavan College of Pharmacy, Dr. Rafiq Zakaria Campus, Aurangabad, 431001 India

Anooja P. Jose

2 Government College of Pharmacy, Aurangabad, 431001 India

Disha Anil Nerkar

Midhuna vijaykumar kv, saquib khaleel shaikh, associated data.

The data and material are available upon request. The graphs and figures used in the manuscript were generated and analyzed and are not used anywhere else before.

Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of COVID-19, a fatal disease emerged from Wuhan, a large city in the Chinese province of Hubei in December 2019.

Main body of abstract

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic due to its spread to other countries inside and outside Asia. Initial confirmation of the pandemic shows patient exposure to the Huanan seafood market. Bats might be a significant host for the spread of coronaviruses via an unknown intermediate host. The human-to-human transfer has become a significant concern due to one of the significant reasons that is asymptomatic carriers or silent spreaders. No data is obtained regarding prophylactic treatment for COVID-19, although many clinical trials are underway.

The most effective weapon is prevention and precaution to avoid the spread of the pandemic. In this current review, we outline pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, ongoing clinical trials, prevention, and precautions. We have also highlighted the impact of pandemic worldwide and challenges that can help to overcome the fatal disease in the future.

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a large family of RNA viruses; they show discrete point-like projections over their surface. They show the presence of an unusually large RNA genome and a distinctive replication strategy. The term “coronavirus” is acquired from the “crown”-like morphology. Coronaviruses show potential fatal human respiratory infections and cause a variety of diseases in animals and birds [ 1 ]. Coronavirus primarily targets the human respiratory system [ 2 ]. The World Health Organization (WHO) named the latest virus as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on 12 January 2020 [ 3 ]. The COVID-19 or the SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly unfurling from Wuhan in Hubei Province of China to worldwide [ 4 ].

Initial confirmation of the pandemic was carried out by conducting studies on 99 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, from which 49% of patients exhibited a history of subjection to the Huanan seafood market. The patient examined had a clinical manifestation of fever, cough, shortness of breath, muscle ache, and sore throat-like symptoms [ 5 ]. COVID-19 has infected several hundreds of humans and has caused many fatal cases [ 6 ]. Worldwide, there have been 3,925,815 confirmed cases, including 274,488 deaths of COVID-19 as of 6:37 pm CEST 10 May 2020 reported to WHO [ 7 ].

This article outlines and gives a complete overview of SARS-CoV-2, including its pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and precautions. This article also provides the current scenario of the pandemic worldwide, since new findings are rapidly evolving and can help the readers in upgrading their knowledge about the COVID-19. It also emphasizes the challenges faced by giving an idea about future strategies in fighting and preventing recurrence.

History and origin

Coronaviruses were not expected to be highly infectious to humans, but the outburst of a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Guangdong province China in the years 2002 and 2003 proved to be devastating. SARS-CoV is the contributory agent of the SARS, also known as “atypical pneumonia”. The coronaviruses that spread before that time in humans mostly caused mild infections in immune-competent people. But after the emergence of SARS, another highly infectious coronavirus, MERS-CoV, appeared in Middle Eastern countries [ 8 , 9 ]. Research has shown that SARS-CoV-2 shows similarities with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. (Table ​ (Table1) 1 ) depicts a comparison of SARS-CoV-2 with SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV [ 10 – 16 ]. Several disseminating strains of coronaviruses were identified and were considered harmless pathogens, causing common cold and mild upper respiratory illness [ 17 ]. HCoV-229E [ 18 ] strain was isolated in 1966. HCoV-NL63 was first isolated from the Netherlands during late 2004. In 2012, MERS-CoV was first identified from the lung of a 60-year-old patient who was suffering from acute pneumonia and renal failure in Saudi Arabia [ 19 ]. About 8000 cases and 800 deaths worldwide were observed due to the outbreak of SARS first human pandemic in the dawn of the twenty-first century [ 20 ].

Comparison of coronaviruses

Note: despite the lower case fatality rate observed in COVID-19, the overall number of death far outweighs that from SARS and MERS

The α-CoVs HCoV-229E and HCoV-NL63 and β-CoVs HCoV-HKU1 and HCoV-OC43 are identified as a human susceptible virus with low pathogenicity and cause mild respiratory symptoms similar to common cold [ 21 ]. SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV result in severe respiratory tract infections [ 22 , 23 ]. COVID-19 was recently reported from Wuhan (China), which has cases in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and the USA, which has been confirmed as a new coronavirus [ 24 ].

The coronavirus genera, which mostly infect mammals, are alpha-coronavirus and beta-coronavirus. Out of 15 presently assigned viral species, seven were isolated from bats. The research proposed that bats are significant hosts for alpha-coronaviruses and beta-coronaviruses and play an essential role as the gene source in the evolution of these two coronavirus genera SARS and MERS [ 25 ]. The genome sequence was found to be 96.2% identical to a bat CoV RaTG13, whereas it shares 79.5% identity to SARS-CoV. The virus genome sequencing outcomes and evolutionary analysis show that bat can be a natural host from virus source, and SARS-CoV-2 might be transferred from bats through unspecified intermediate hosts to infect humans [ 26 ]. It is found that SARS-CoV-2 affects males more than females [ 27 ]. The spread of SARS-CoV-2 emerged like a wild forest fire in many countries worldwide. Table ( ​ (2) 2 ) [ 28 ] gives a brief of the first identified cases of COVID-19 in different countries.

First confirmed case

The first confirmed case was reported in China, and since then, there was a widespread of coronavirus in other countries worldwide. Table ​ Table1 1 shows the first confirmed case with dates

Coronaviruses are spherical to pleomorphic enveloped particles [ 29 ]. The size ranges from 80 to 120 nm in diameter. The maximum size is as small as 50 nm and as large as 200 nm are also seen [ 30 ]. There are four types of main structural proteins observed in the coronaviruses: the spike (S), membrane (M), envelope (E), and nucleocapsid (N) proteins, which are encoded within the viral genome (Table ​ (Table3). 3 ). In thin sections, the virion envelope may be visualized as inner and outer shells separated by a translucent space [ 31 ]. The virion envelope contains phospholipids, glycolipids, cholesterol, di- and triglycerides, and free fatty acids in proportions. The complexed genome RNA is with the basic nucleocapsid (N) protein, which forms a helical capsid established within the viral membrane. The enclosed glycoproteins are responsible for attachment to the host cells [ 32 ].

Structural proteins of coronavirus and their functions

According to the recent studies, it is observed that coronavirus which lacks envelope protein (E) serves as a good candidate in vaccine designing

The coronavirus genomes are among the most massive mature RNA molecules as compared to other eukaryotic RNAs (Fig. ​ (Fig.1) 1 ) [ 33 ]. The genome of these viruses contains multiple ORFS. A typical CoV consists of at least 6 ORFs in its genome. Several studies have confirmed the genetic resemblance between SARS-CoV-2 and a bat CoV.

Structure of novel coronavirus

A study conducted to compare the genetic mutations of COVID showed genomic mutations among viruses from different countries, wherein a sequence obtained from Nepal showed minimum to no variations. In contrast, the maximum number of modifications was obtained from one derived from the Indian series located in ORF1-ab nsp2 nsp3 helicase ORF8 and spike surface glycoprotein. Also, host antiviral mRNAs play a critical part in the regulation of immune response to virus infection, depending upon the viral agent. The unique host mRNAs could be explored in the development of novel antiviral therapies. The club-like surface projections or peplomers of coronaviruses are about 17–20 nm from the virion surface. It has a subtle base that swells to a width of about 10 nm at the distal extremity. Some coronaviruses that exhibit the second set of projections about 5–10-nm long are present beneath the significant projections. These shorter spikes are now known as hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) protein, an additional membrane protein found in a subset of group 2 coronaviruses. The primary role of this non-essential protein is to aid in viral entry and pathogenesis in vivo. It configures short projections that bind to N-acetyl-9-O-acetlyneuramic acid or N-glycolylneuraminic acid and have esterase [ 34 – 39 ]. Figure ​ Figure2 2 shows the primary classification of coronavirus.

Classification of coronavirus

Lifecycle of coronavirus

The life cycle of the virus with the host consists of the following four steps: attachment, penetration, biosynthesis, maturation, and release (Fig. ​ (Fig.3). 3 ). Once the virus binds to the host receptor, they enter host cells through endocytosis or membrane fusion. Once the viral contents are released inside the host cells, viral RNA enters the nucleus for replication. Viral mRNA is used to make viral proteins and is further proceeded by maturation and release [ 40 , 41 ].

Attachment and entry

The virion attachment with the host cell is initiated by interaction between S protein and its receptors, which is also a primary determinant for coronavirus infection. The S protein undergoes acid-dependent proteolytic cleavage, which results in exposure of fusion peptide. This fusion is followed by the formation of a six-helix bundle (bundle formation helps in combining viral and cellular membrane) and release of the viral genome into the cytoplasm.

Replicase protein expression

The process of translation of replicase gene ORFs1a and ORFs1b and translation of polyprotein pp1a and pp1ab takes place. Assembly of nsps into replicase-transcriptase complex (RTC) leads to viral RNA synthesis (replication and transcription of subgenomic RNAs).

Replication and transcription

In the replication process, the viral RNA synthesis is followed by the production of genomic and sub-genomic RNAs (sub-genomic mRNAs), which further leads to recombination of the virus.

Assembly and release

The insertion and translation of viral structure protein S, E, and M takes place into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which is followed by the movement of proteins along the secretory pathway into ERGIC (endoplasmic reticulum Golgi intermediate compartment). The viral genome is encapsidated by N protein into the membrane of ERGIC. M and E protein expression give rise to the formation of virus-like particles (VLPs). After the assembly of the virion and its transportation to cell surface vesicles, exocytosis takes place. Finally, it results in viral release (E protein helps by altering the host secretory pathway).

The incubation period is the period between the entry of the virus into the host and appearance of signs and symptoms in the host or the period between the earliest date of contact of the transmission source and the most initial time of symptom onset (i.e., cough, fever, fatigue, or myalgia) [ 42 ]. The incubation period of COVID-19 is vital as the disease could be transmitted during this phase through asymptomatic as well as symptomatic carriers (Table ​ (Table4). 4 ). The inhaled virus SARS-CoV-2 binds to the epithelial cells present in the nasal cavity and starts replicating.

Incubation period of coronaviruses

On the basis of studies conducted and data findings, virologists points out that incubation period extends to 14 days, with a median time of 4–5 days from exposure to symptom onset. One study reported that 97.5% of persons with COVID-19 who develop symptoms will do so within 11.5 days of SARS-CoV-2 infection

ACE2 is the primary receptor for both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, which is an asymptomatic state (initial 1–2 days of infection). Upper airway and conducting airway response are seen the next few days. The disease is mild and mostly restricted only to the upper conducting airways for about 80% of the infected patients [ 43 ].

The incubation period is required to create more productive quarantine systems for people infected with the virus. The incubation period for the COVID-19 is between 2 and 14 days after exposure. A newly infected person shows symptoms in the about 5 days after contact with a sick patient. In most patients, symptoms appeared after 12–14 days of infection

The average incubation period was approximated to be 5.1 days, and 97.5% of those who develop symptoms will do so within 11.5 days of infection. In Wuhan’s return patients, the average incubation period is found to be 6.4 days. In a case reported by Hubei province, local government on 22 February showed an incubation period of 27 days. In another case, an incubation period of 19 days was observed. Therefore a 24-day observation period is considered in suspected cases by the Chinese government and also by WHO [ 44 – 51 ]. The frequency of cases is increasing day by day, and it is essential to keep a check over it. Figure ​ Figure4 4 gives a glance of confirmed cases cumulative and death overtime cumulative from 10 January onwards up to 25 May.

a Graph of confirmed (cumulative) cases overtime in various countries . b Graph of death (cumulative) overtime in various countries

Pathogenesis

Like other CoVs, the SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted primarily via respiratory droplets and possible faeco-oral transmission routes [ 52 ]. Figure ​ Figure5 5 gives a complete outline of the pathogenesis of coronavirus. On infection, primary viral replication is expected to occur in the mucosal epithelium of the upper respiratory tract with further multiplication into the lower respiratory tract and GI mucosa, giving rise to mild viremia. The virus enters the host cells through two methods either:

• I. Direct entry
• II. Endocytosis

Complete pathogenesis of coronavirus

These are positive sense ss-RNA viruses that can cause respiratory, enteric, hepatic, and neurologic diseases. High binding capacity with SARS-CoV-2 was observed by molecular biological analysis [ 53 ]. The ACE2 gene encodes the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptor for both the SARS-CoV and the human respiratory coronavirus NL63. Recent studies show that ACE2 could be the host receptor for the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV/SARS-CoV-2 [ 54 ].

Human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2), which was the binding receptor of SARS-CoV, is analogous to SARS-CoV-2. These hACE2 are type 1 membrane proteins expressed in various cells of the nasal mucosa, lung, bronchus, heart, kidney, intestines, bladder, stomach, esophagus, and ileum. It functions as an enzyme in the RAS and is, therefore, mainly associated with cardiovascular diseases [ 55 ].

The zinc peptidase ACE2 has also expressed in the alveolar type 2 pneumocytes, which explains its role in lung damage due to SARS-CoV. The SARS-CoV-2 shows 10–12-fold more affinity towards the proteins than the other SARS-CoV. Pathophysiology and virulence of the virus link to the function of its nsps and structural proteins. The nsp can block the host’s innate mechanism response while the virus envelope increases the pathogenicity as it assists the assembly and release of the virus [ 56 ].

The CoV spike glycoproteins comprise of three segments—a large ectodomain, a single-pass transmembrane anchor, and a small intracellular tail. The ectodomain is composed of the receptor-binding domain (RBD)—the S1 and the membrane fusion subunit S2. The two significant areas in s1, N-terminal domain (NTD) and the c-terminal domain (CTD), have been identified. The S1 NTDs are essential for binding to the sugar receptors, and the s1 CTDs are responsible for binding receptors ACE2, SPN, and DPP4 [ 57 ]. The S proteins undergo a considerable structural rearrangement to fuse with the viral membrane of the host cell membrane. The s1 subunit shedding and the s2 subunit transition to a highly stable conformation is the initial step in the fusion process [ 58 ]. The ACE2 consists of the N-terminal peptidase domain (NPD) and the C-terminal collectrin-like domain (CCTD) that ends with a single transmembrane helix and a 40 residue intracellular segment. It provides a direct binding site for S protein of CoVs.

The enzymes which assist this virus attachment include the serine protease enzymes TMPRSS2. These enzymes, which are cell-surface proteases, facilitate entry. In endosomes, the S1 of s proteins is cleaved, and the fusion peptides S2 are exposed. This exposed S2 unit brings the HR1 and HR2 together, resulting in membrane fusion and thereby release of viral package into the host membrane [ 59 ].

The viral RNA enters the nucleus for replication after the viral contents are released. Viral mRNA is used to make viral proteins. Decreased expression of ACE2 in a host cell results in an attack on the airway epithelium by the virus. These lead to acute lung injury that triggers immune responses. The release of various pro-inflammatory and chemokines like IL-6, IFN- gamma, MCPI 1, and IL-10 leads to capillary permeability in alveolar sacs. Due to local inflammation in the lungs, the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines increases into the blood circulation of the patient. It results in fluid filling and increased difficulty in the exchange of gases across the membrane. Viral replication and infection in airway epithelial cells could cause high levels of virus-linked pyroptosis with associated vascular leakage. IL-beta cytokine released during pyroptosis is a highly inflammatory form of programmed cell death, which is the trigger subsequent inflammatory response. The IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 N protein can be detected in the serum in the early stages at the onset of the disease. The non-neutralizing antibodies result in ADE (antibody-dependent enhancement), which leads to an increased systematic inflammatory response.

The pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines are an indicator of T H cells. Secretions from such cytokines and chemokines attract immune cell monocytes and T lymphocytes. High levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-2, IL-7, IL-10, IP-10, G-CSF, MCP-1, MIP-1A, and TNF alpha, were detected in the severe infection called cytokine storm or cytokine release syndrome as a crucial factor in the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

The cytokine storm increases the inflammatory response resulting in increased blood plasma levels of neutrophils IL-6, IL-10, granulocytes, MCP1, TNF, and decreased organ perfusion, which results in multiple organ failure. Cytokine storm and pulmonary edema due to ACE2 dysregulation result in acute respiratory distress syndrome. SARS-CoV-2 can also affect the CNS [ 60 ]. Myocardial damage increases the difficulty and complexity of patient treatment [ 61 ]. Clinical investigations have shown that patients with cardiac diseases, hypertension, or diabetes, who are treated with ACE2-increasing drugs, including inhibitors and blockers, are at higher risk of getting infected with SARS-CoV2 [ 62 ]. Death results due to ARDS and multiple organ failure.

People with COVID-19 infection show symptoms ranging from mild to severe illness. Figure ​ Figure6 6 shows a brief outline of various symptoms related to COVID-19. The warning signs and symptoms such as trouble breathing, constant pain or pressure in the chest, inability to wake or stay awake, and bluish lips or face are observed in patients [ 63 ]. Older people (65 years and older) are at higher risk of developing the disease.

Symptoms for coronavirus

According to a study, people of all ages having asthma, diabetes, HIV, liver diseases, severe heart conditions, severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 40 or higher), and chronic kidney diseases undergoing dialysis show a higher mortality rate. The other populations with people showing disabilities, pregnancy, and breastfeeding and people experiencing homelessness, racial, and minority groups are at elevated risk of transmission of disease [ 64 ]. The crucial fact to know about coronavirus on surfaces is that they can easily be cleaned with ordinary household disinfectants that will kill the virus [ 65 ]. Studies have shown (Fig. ​ (Fig.7) 7 ) that the COVID-19 virus can survive for up to 72 h on plastic and stainless steel, about 4 h on copper, and less than 24 h on cardboard [ 66 ].

Survival of virus on various objects

Diagnosis: COVID-19

There are two categories of tests available for COVID-19:

• Viral tests: a viral analysis indicates whether a person has a current infection.
• Antibody tests: an antibody indicates whether a person had an infection.

The protection of getting infected again in a person showing the presence of antibodies to the virus is still unexplained [ 67 ].

Tests for current infection

A swab sample is collected (from the nose) to conclude that a person is currently infected with SARS-CoV-2. Some tests are called as point-of-care tests, which means their results may be available in less than an hour. Other test takes 1–2 days for analyzing after being received by the laboratory [ 68 ].

Test for past infection

Antibody tests analyze a blood sample for the presence of antibodies, which show if one had a previous infection with the virus. Antibody tests cannot be used to diagnose someone as being currently infected with COVID-19. Antibody tests are accessible through healthcare providers and laboratories [ 69 ]. In severe cases, clinical diagnosis is done based on the clinical manifestations of respiratory failure syndrome, increased liver function tests, blood tests indicating leukopenia, and high levels of ferritin. For such, a test for soluble CD-163 (sCD-163), showing the activation of macrophages, was suggested [ 70 ]. Laboratory diagnosis included genomic sequencing, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and serological methods (such as enzyme-linked immunoassay [ELISA]). Because of the rapidly changing diversity found in the expression of the novel coronavirus, pneumonia became diverse and quickly changed. Other methods used are radiographic images for early observations and evaluation of disease severity [ 71 ].

Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) shows high sensitivity for new SARS cases. The suspected cases must be confirmed by using RT-PCR and other methods (slower methods) of detection such as serology or viral culture, isolation, and identification by electron microscopy, thereby causing a significant increase in the time required for an accurate diagnosis [ 72 ]. The samples are collected from upper and lower respiratory tracts through expectorated sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage, or endotracheal aspirate, which are then assessed by conducting polymerase chain reaction for viral RNA. It is recommended to repeat the test for reevaluation purposes in case of a positive result, and if the test is negative, a strong clinical impression also permits repeat testing [ 73 ].

An alternative diagnostic test to detect the SARS-CoV is mass spectroscopic identification of microbial nucleic acid signatures. Computed tomography images of the lungs showed 100% multiple patchy with fine mesh and consolidated shade distributed under the pleura. Nucleic acid tests were conducted in 187 patients, and all were positive to SARS-CoV-2. In the pulmonary CT images, 8% of them (15 cases) showed diffused lesions in either lungs or white lung. In the absorptive period, 98.9% showed fibrogenesis and diminished lesions. The CT imaging features differed from each follow-up showing different clinical symptoms [ 74 ]. The improvement in the detection of COVID-19 was found by the ELISA method. It is based on SARS r-CoV Rp3 nucleocapsid protein, which helps to detect the IgM and IgG against SARS-CoV-2. ELISA is a highly recommended method as the sampling blood is less stringent, and antibodies allow longer windows than oropharyngeal swabs for detecting viruses [ 75 ].

There is no particular treatment recommended for COVID-19. There is no data obtained regarding prophylactic treatment for COVID-19, only we can prevent from coming in contact with the pathogen. Confirmed cases are hospitalized and admitted in the same ward. Patients with mild symptoms may not require hospitalization [ 76 ]. They are isolated or self-isolated at home by following the doctor’s advice. Critically ill patients (respiratory shock, respiratory failure, septic shock, or other organ failures) should be admitted to ICU as soon as possible [ 77 ].

General treatment

The general treatment includes bed rest and supportive measures ensuring sufficient intake of calories, fluid, and electrolytes, and maintenance of acid-base homeostasis. Monitoring oxygen saturation and vital signs, keeping the respiratory tract unobstructed and inhaling oxygen, measuring C-reactive protein, hematology and biochemistry laboratory testing and ECG, blood gas analysis, and examining of chest images as when required and monitoring for any complications [ 78 ]. Patients having high body temperature above 38.5°C Celsius are administered with ibuprofen and acetaminophen orally.

Oxygen therapy

Patients with conditions of obstructed breathing, respiratory distress, shock, coma, and convulsions must receive oxygen therapy and airway management, targeting SpO2 more significant than 94%. Initiate O 2 treatment at 5 L/min and titrated to reach the target or use a face mask with a reservoir bag (10–15 L/min) if the patients are in critical condition.

Once stable, the target is 90% SpO2 in non-pregnant adults and 95% in pregnant adults. The use of nasal prongs or nasal cannula is preferred in young children, as they may be better tolerated. When oxygen therapy fails, mechanical ventilation is necessary. In a meta-analysis, the use of additional oxygen therapy (38.9%), non-invasive (7.1%) and invasive ventilation (28.7%), and even ECMO (0.9%) was surprisingly high among the 1876 patients in which any kind of pharmacological and supportive intervention was reported [ 79 ].

Antiviral agents

Remdesivir inhibits virus infection at the micromolar level (0.77–1.13 μM) and with high selectivity [ 80 ]. Remdesivir gets incorporated into viral RNA due to its adenosine analog nature and results in premature chain termination [ 81 ]. Remdesivir is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is only recommended for mild or moderate COVID-19 conditions and the treatment of hospitalized adults and children in emergencies.

Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine

Chloroquine increases endosomal pH, making the environment unfavorable for viral cell fusion. It also affects the glycosylation process of ACE-2. On administering chloroquine after 1 h of infection, gradual loss of antiviral activity was seen, though it affects the endosome fusion when administered shortly after the infection. When administered after 3–5 h after the infection, chloroquine was significantly effective against HCoV strain OC43 [ 82 ]. There is an excessive risk of toxicities due to high chloroquine doses; the recommended dose for chloroquine is 600 mg twice daily for 10 days for the treatment of COVID-19.

Interferon–alpha

Interferon-α is used in treating bronchiolitis; viral pneumonia; acute upper respiratory tract infection; hand, foot, and mouth disease; SARS; and other viral infections in children. According to the clinical research and experiences, the following usage is recommended for COVID-19

• Interferon-α nebulization: interferon-α 200,000–400,000 IU/kg or 2–4 μg/kg in 2 mL sterile water, nebulization two times per day for 5–7 days
• Interferon-α2b spray: applied for high-risk populations with close contact with suspected COVID-19 infected patients or those in the early phase with only upper respiratory tract symptoms.

Lopinavir/ritonavir

In a clinical trial among adult patients of or less than 18 years, it was observed that a combination of lopinavir/ritonavir, ribavirin, and interferon beta-1b would speed up the recovery, suppress the viral load, shorten hospitalization, and reduce mortality compared with lopinavir/ritonavir [ 83 ].

Immune-based therapy

Patients who show an inadequate response to initial therapy can get benefit from immunoglobulin [ 84 ]. Non-SARS-CoV-2-specific IVIG should not be used for COVID-19 except in case of clinical trials.

Corticosteroids

Corticosteroids are widely used in the symptomatic treatment of severe pneumonia. According to a detailed review and analysis, the result indicates that patients with severe conditions required corticosteroid therapy [ 85 ]. According to a systematic review of literature, daily use of corticosteroids in a COVID-19 patient is not encouraged; however, some studies suggest that methylprednisolone can reduce the mortality rate in more severe conditions, such as in ARDS [ 86 ].

Antimicrobial therapy

Patients with a mild type of bacterial infection can take oral antibiotics, such as cephalosporin or fluoroquinolones. Although a patient may be a suspect for COVID-19, appropriate antimicrobial agent should be administered within an hour of recognition of sepsis. Antibiotic therapy should be based on the clinical diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia, healthcare-associated pneumonia, local epidemiology, susceptibility data, and national treatment guidelines. When there is the ongoing local circulation of seasonal influenza, this therapy with a neuraminidase inhibitor should be considered for the treatment for patients [ 87 ].

Tocilizumab

According to a review, 25 patients with laboratory-confirmed severe COVID-19 who received tocilizumab and completed 14 days of follow-up, 36% were discharged alive from the intensive care unit, and 12% died [ 88 ]. The biopsy specimen analysis suggested that increased alveolar exudates resulted from an immune response against an inflammatory cytokine storm. Probably an obstruction in alveolar gas exchange contributed to the high mortality rate of severe COVID-19 patients. A study identified that pathogenic T cells and inflammatory monocytes arouse an inflammatory storm with a large amount of interleukin 6. Tocilizumab blocks IL-6 receptors, which shows encouraging clinical results, including controlling temperature quickly and improved respiratory functions. Henceforth, tocilizumab is useful in the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients to calm the inflammatory storm and reduce mortality [ 89 ].

FDA-approved drug ivermectin for parasitic infection has a possibility for reprocessing and acts as an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. A single therapy can affect approximately 500-fold reduction and effectual loss of substantially all viral material by 48 h [ 90 ]. A single of ivermectin, in combination with doxycycline, yielded the near-miraculous result in curing the patients with COVID-19 virtually.

Azithromycin

Azithromycin is used for patients with viral pneumonia from COVID-19. It can also work synergistically and coactively with other antiviral treatments. It has also shown antiviral activity against the Zika virus and rhinoviruses, which cause the common cold. Viral infection was significantly reduced in patients receiving hydroxychloroquine than those who did not. The virus elimination was efficient in patients who received both azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine [ 91 ]. (Table ​ (Table5) 5 ) lists other supporting agents used in treatment [ 92 ].

Supporting agents used in treatment

The repurposing of available therapeutic drugs is being used as supporting agents in the treatment of COVID-19; however, the efficacy of these treatments should be verified by using designed clinical trials

Precautions and preventions

WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020. Unfortunately, no medication until now is approved by the FDA, and various trials are going on. Still, the most effective weapon the community has in hand is the prevention of spread. The following are some of the COVID-19 prevention measures.

• Quarantine: self-quarantine, mandatory quarantine (private residence, hospital, public institution, etc.)
• Other measures: avoiding crowding, hand hygiene, isolation, personal protective equipment, school/workplace measures/closures, social distancing [ 93 ].

Asymptomatic carriers as the “silent spreaders” are of great concern for the elimination of disease and its control. So, more attention should be given to them [ 94 ]. Hand hygiene with alcohol-based hand-rub is globally recommended as productive and economical procedures against SARS-CoV-2 cross-transmission [ 95 ]. The economic implications of hand hygiene have been established. It has been found that this cost under 1% of total HAI-related economics. It is better to invest not only in the materials needed but also in the people working there. This investment will lead to an increase in the health outcome [ 96 ]. The clinical presentation of COVID-19 is non-specific, so it needs a robust and accurate diagnosis. It has been suggested that before stopping the infection control measures, we have to be sure to exclude the diagnosis [ 97 ]. Prevention plays a vital role in treating and defeating the COVID-19 disaster.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives standard precautions (Fig. ​ (Fig.8) 8 ) and recommends measures to prevent COVID-19. Wear personnel protective equipment (face shield, mask, gown, gloves, and closed-toed shoes) when evaluating persons at risk. N-95 masks are known to prevent up to 95% of small particles, including viruses [ 98 ]. Cover all coughs/sneezes with a tissue and then throw the tissue away. Regularly clean/disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces with household cleaning spray and use a tissue when handling (e.g., doorknobs, sink taps, water fountain handles, elevator buttons, cross-walk buttons, and shopping carts). Avoid contact with infected people (recommended > 6 ft) and maintain an appropriate distance as much as possible and refrain from touching nose eyes and mouth [ 99 ]. Avoid well persons when you are ill. Wear a mask continuously if taking care of persons with respiratory illness. To turn on the tap, use a paper towel and then wash hands with soap and water for at least 30 s after going to the bathroom. Use hand sanitizer and carry whenever at a public venue. Activate community-based interventions (e.g., cancel sporting events, dismiss, termination of universities and schools, practice social distancing, create employee plans to work remotely) [ 100 ]. Create a household-ready plan. Cancel any non-essential travel [ 101 ]. Frequent disinfection and cleaning are advised for groups that are at risk of contracting the virus [ 102 ].

Prevention and precaution

In an Indian study mathematical approach was used to address some questions related to intervention strategies to control the COVID-19 transmission in India. Some hypothetical epidemic curves helped to illustrate the critical findings [ 103 ]. Predication of spread and implications of prevention and control using the Maximum-Hasting (MH) parameter assessment method and the modified Susceptible Exposed Infectious Recovered (SEIR) model was done. Suppression, mitigation, and mildness were the three predicted outlines for the spread of infection in some African countries [ 104 ].

Infection control strategies that can be acquired in hospitals were accomplished in a Taiwanese hospital to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. These included emergency vigilance and responses from the hospital administration, education, surveillance, patient flow arrangement, the partition of hospital zones, and the prevention of a systemic shutdown by using the “divided cabin, divided flow” strategy. These measures may not be universally appropriate [ 105 ]. The preventive measures implemented in China included countrywide health education campaigns. The Examine and Approve Policy on the continuation of work, working and living quarters, a health Quick Response code system, community screening, and social distancing policies were some of the preventive measures [ 106 ].

Based on the analysis of immigration population data, the Epidemic Risk Time Series Model was outlined to estimate the effectiveness of COVID-19 epidemic control and prevention among different regions in China. Compared to other methods, this model was able to issue early recognition more instantaneously. For the prevention and control of COVID-19, this model can be generalized and applied to other countries [ 107 ]. The majority of clinical trials involving COVID-19 vaccines or treatment are showing encouraging results. (Tables ​ (Tables6 6 and ​ and7) 7 ) show ongoing phase 3 and 4 clinical trials [ 108 ].

Ongoing clinical trials phase 3 studies

Ongoing clinical trials, phase 4 studies

Impact of COVID-19 on overall health of the people worldwide

The international response to COVID-19 has been more transparent and efficient when compared to the SARS outbreak [ 109 ].

The pandemic COVID-19, being a most severe strainer, is affecting the overall health system worldwide. There is a continuously increasing demand for healthcare facilities and associated workers, which is overstretching the ability to operate efficiently [ 110 ]. Some pieces of evidence are showing a destructive effect on maternal and child health. Some financial, educational, sanitation, and even clinical constraints are threatening the overall population of the children [ 111 ]. As coronavirus is sweeping across the world, the primary psychological impact is elevated in terms of stress and anxiety. The quarantine period is expected to raise cases involving suicidal behavior, substance abuse, self-harm, depression, and loneliness. WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance use has given some messages to overcome psychological impacts [ 112 ]. There is a relationship between human development and infectious diseases. Whichever changes (new technology, constructions of dams, deforestations, migration, increasing populations, the emergence of urban ghettoes, globalization of food, and increasing international travel) brought about by the development, are stretching the word into the mouth of such pandemics indirectly. This pandemic is having a significant impact on the global economy as the erosion of capacity and rise in poverty [ 113 , 114 ].

COVID-19 has affected the population differently based on gender. Significantly, this crisis is affecting the reproductive and sexual health of women. Another point is that there should be an equal contribution to both the genders in any healthcare body. There should be more distribution of decision-making power among them [ 115 ]. Protective measures can effectively prevent COVID-19 infection, including improving personal hygiene, wearing N95 masks, adequate rest, and proper ventilation [ 116 ].

Have to learn to live with COVID-19

The Health Ministry has said that we have to learn to survive with COVID-19. We cannot step ahead by carrying the burden of COVID-19 that could recur annually and kill so many people [ 117 ]. Governments are learning to strike a balance between controlling COVID-19 spread and allowing individual freedoms and economic activity. Measures such as lockdowns, arbitrary travel bans, widespread quarantines, intrusive screening of people crossing boundaries can be adopted for prevention. Virtual work will become much more common. Supplier close-downs, sudden employee truancy, and demand collapse caused by disease outbreaks will make the businesses able to withstand disruptions.

The government, industry, or specialist certification for disease control processes and standards similar to ISO 9001 or USFDA certificate will be a crucial part of many businesses. The cost of traveling will expand more due to the risk of infection and lockdown. At the same time, the responsibility of work airlines, hotels, and restaurants will be added to minimize infection risk. Delivery businesses will perform well, and “Contactless delivery” is already a thing.

The industries that provide products to help circumvent, control, diminish, or treat COVID-19 will flourish. The requirement for hospital rooms will increase tremendously, with an increasing need for reserves of equipment, supplies, and drugs. In the upcoming time, businesses are likely to face demand crisis as the world comes to terms with living in a state of medical beleaguerment [ 118 ]. It is just a prediction, but we can still aspire for the best [ 119 ]. The most destructive effects would be in countries with weak health systems, on-going disputes, or existing infectious disease epidemics.

In contrast, the health systems in high-income countries would be stretched out by the outbreak [ 120 ]. It has been seen that resources are limited in countries with poor scientific infrastructure, such as Nepal, where there was only one laboratory equipped to test for coronavirus infection. Fear and stigma is an evident feature of the COVID-19; it has affected the economic and social development of many countries worldwide [ 121 ].

The insufficiency of the trained workforce capable of performing experiments required to test for SARS-CoV-2 and interpret the results is another major limitation in the testing and confinement of COVID-19 in developing countries [ 122 ]. The virus has the potential to adapt and get through the different environmental conditions, which makes it quite difficult to identify its mode of survival [ 123 ]. Another crucial impediment in a research project is a suitable model to investigate in vivo mechanism associated with the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 [ 124 – 126 ].

Current screening approaches for COVID-19 are likely to miss approximately 50% of the infected cases, even in countries with sound health systems and available diagnostic capacities. Many symptoms correlated with COVID-19 are similar to malaria, such as fever, difficulty in breathing, fatigue, and headaches of acute onset. If symptoms alone are used to specify a case during the emergency period then, a malaria case may be misinterpreted as COVID-19. The symptoms for malaria are seen within 10–15 days after an infective bite; multi-organ failure is common in severe cases among adults, while respiratory distress is also expected in children [ 127 ].

COVID-19 has emerged as the most terrified and enormous viral infection. According to WHO, the coronavirus might become an endemic disease. Originating from China as a global pandemic, it has influenced people on a large scale. There is no clear end that can be seen for this contagious disease. The only possible cure for this pandemic is prevention. We have to face it as a global community and support each other. The amplification of positivity will have a tremendous impact on the whole society. It is the duty of each individual for self-supervision and to report COVID-19 status, and challenging for those who appear to be ill. The other measure which can be followed to tackle this pandemic is healthy nourishment, sanitation, and hygiene practices robust connection and communication among children, and counseling to face the situation. Special care should be given to older people and pregnant ladies. It is better to get information only from the trusted sources; it is vital to get the facts and not the misinformation or rumors. Healthcare servants should have excellent and accurate communication with the public and must provide emotional and practical support. The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has caused not only notable morbidity and mortality in the world but also revealed significant systematic problems in the control and prevention of infectious diseases.

Acknowledgements

The authors express their sincere thanks to Ms. Fatma Rafiq Zakaria, Chairman of Maulana Azad Educational Trust Aurangabad Maharashtra, for her endless encouragement and support and for providing necessary facilities to carry out the above research work.

Abbreviations

Authors’ contributions

All authors participated in the work substantively and have approved the manuscript as submitted. The authors have no conflict of interest in the study. Drafting the article and critical revision of the article was carried out by SSS. Data collection for the formation of graphical abstract and various figures and tables was also contributed from her end. Conception or design of the work was carried out by SKS. He also contributed to the data collection for lifecycle, history, and origin. Data collection for pathogenesis and comparison of CoVs study was carried out by APJ. Data collection for diagnosis and treatment was carried out by MVKV. Data collection for clinical trials was carried out by DAN. Final approval of the version to be published was done by all the authors’ SSS, APJ, DAN, MVKV, and SKS. All the authors have read and approved the manuscript. Each author has agreed with the publication of the manuscript.

No funding was received for this work

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Ethics approval and consent to participate.

Not applicable

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I, on behalf of all the authors, hereby declare that there is no significant financial, professional, or personal competing interest that might have influenced the performance or presentation of the work described in this manuscript.

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• Volume 76, Issue 2
• COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on social relationships and health
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1512-4471 Emily Long 1 ,
• Susan Patterson 1 ,
• Karen Maxwell 1 ,
• Carolyn Blake 1 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7342-4566 Raquel Bosó Pérez 1 ,
• Ruth Lewis 1 ,
• Mark McCann 1 ,
• Julie Riddell 1 ,
• Kathryn Skivington 1 ,
• Rachel Wilson-Lowe 1 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-6601 Kirstin R Mitchell 2
• 1 MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit , University of Glasgow , Glasgow , UK
• 2 MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Institute of Health & Wellbeing , University of Glasgow , Glasgow , UK
• Correspondence to Dr Emily Long, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G3 7HR, UK; emily.long{at}glasgow.ac.uk

This essay examines key aspects of social relationships that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses explicitly on relational mechanisms of health and brings together theory and emerging evidence on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to make recommendations for future public health policy and recovery. We first provide an overview of the pandemic in the UK context, outlining the nature of the public health response. We then introduce four distinct domains of social relationships: social networks, social support, social interaction and intimacy, highlighting the mechanisms through which the pandemic and associated public health response drastically altered social interactions in each domain. Throughout the essay, the lens of health inequalities, and perspective of relationships as interconnecting elements in a broader system, is used to explore the varying impact of these disruptions. The essay concludes by providing recommendations for longer term recovery ensuring that the social relational cost of COVID-19 is adequately considered in efforts to rebuild.

• inequalities

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated and/or analysed for this study. Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated or analysed for this essay.

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2021-216690

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Introduction

Infectious disease pandemics, including SARS and COVID-19, demand intrapersonal behaviour change and present highly complex challenges for public health. 1 A pandemic of an airborne infection, spread easily through social contact, assails human relationships by drastically altering the ways through which humans interact. In this essay, we draw on theories of social relationships to examine specific ways in which relational mechanisms key to health and well-being were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Relational mechanisms refer to the processes between people that lead to change in health outcomes.

At the time of writing, the future surrounding COVID-19 was uncertain. Vaccine programmes were being rolled out in countries that could afford them, but new and more contagious variants of the virus were also being discovered. The recovery journey looked long, with continued disruption to social relationships. The social cost of COVID-19 was only just beginning to emerge, but the mental health impact was already considerable, 2 3 and the inequality of the health burden stark. 4 Knowledge of the epidemiology of COVID-19 accrued rapidly, but evidence of the most effective policy responses remained uncertain.

The initial response to COVID-19 in the UK was reactive and aimed at reducing mortality, with little time to consider the social implications, including for interpersonal and community relationships. The terminology of ‘social distancing’ quickly became entrenched both in public and policy discourse. This equation of physical distance with social distance was regrettable, since only physical proximity causes viral transmission, whereas many forms of social proximity (eg, conversations while walking outdoors) are minimal risk, and are crucial to maintaining relationships supportive of health and well-being.

The aim of this essay is to explore four key relational mechanisms that were impacted by the pandemic and associated restrictions: social networks, social support, social interaction and intimacy. We use relational theories and emerging research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic response to make three key recommendations: one regarding public health responses; and two regarding social recovery. Our understanding of these mechanisms stems from a ‘systems’ perspective which casts social relationships as interdependent elements within a connected whole. 5

Social networks

Social networks characterise the individuals and social connections that compose a system (such as a workplace, community or society). Social relationships range from spouses and partners, to coworkers, friends and acquaintances. They vary across many dimensions, including, for example, frequency of contact and emotional closeness. Social networks can be understood both in terms of the individuals and relationships that compose the network, as well as the overall network structure (eg, how many of your friends know each other).

Social networks show a tendency towards homophily, or a phenomenon of associating with individuals who are similar to self. 6 This is particularly true for ‘core’ network ties (eg, close friends), while more distant, sometimes called ‘weak’ ties tend to show more diversity. During the height of COVID-19 restrictions, face-to-face interactions were often reduced to core network members, such as partners, family members or, potentially, live-in roommates; some ‘weak’ ties were lost, and interactions became more limited to those closest. Given that peripheral, weaker social ties provide a diversity of resources, opinions and support, 7 COVID-19 likely resulted in networks that were smaller and more homogenous.

Such changes were not inevitable nor necessarily enduring, since social networks are also adaptive and responsive to change, in that a disruption to usual ways of interacting can be replaced by new ways of engaging (eg, Zoom). Yet, important inequalities exist, wherein networks and individual relationships within networks are not equally able to adapt to such changes. For example, individuals with a large number of newly established relationships (eg, university students) may have struggled to transfer these relationships online, resulting in lost contacts and a heightened risk of social isolation. This is consistent with research suggesting that young adults were the most likely to report a worsening of relationships during COVID-19, whereas older adults were the least likely to report a change. 8

Lastly, social connections give rise to emergent properties of social systems, 9 where a community-level phenomenon develops that cannot be attributed to any one member or portion of the network. For example, local area-based networks emerged due to geographic restrictions (eg, stay-at-home orders), resulting in increases in neighbourly support and local volunteering. 10 In fact, research suggests that relationships with neighbours displayed the largest net gain in ratings of relationship quality compared with a range of relationship types (eg, partner, colleague, friend). 8 Much of this was built from spontaneous individual interactions within local communities, which together contributed to the ‘community spirit’ that many experienced. 11 COVID-19 restrictions thus impacted the personal social networks and the structure of the larger networks within the society.

Social support

Social support, referring to the psychological and material resources provided through social interaction, is a critical mechanism through which social relationships benefit health. In fact, social support has been shown to be one of the most important resilience factors in the aftermath of stressful events. 12 In the context of COVID-19, the usual ways in which individuals interact and obtain social support have been severely disrupted.

One such disruption has been to opportunities for spontaneous social interactions. For example, conversations with colleagues in a break room offer an opportunity for socialising beyond one’s core social network, and these peripheral conversations can provide a form of social support. 13 14 A chance conversation may lead to advice helpful to coping with situations or seeking formal help. Thus, the absence of these spontaneous interactions may mean the reduction of indirect support-seeking opportunities. While direct support-seeking behaviour is more effective at eliciting support, it also requires significantly more effort and may be perceived as forceful and burdensome. 15 The shift to homeworking and closure of community venues reduced the number of opportunities for these spontaneous interactions to occur, and has, second, focused them locally. Consequently, individuals whose core networks are located elsewhere, or who live in communities where spontaneous interaction is less likely, have less opportunity to benefit from spontaneous in-person supportive interactions.

However, alongside this disruption, new opportunities to interact and obtain social support have arisen. The surge in community social support during the initial lockdown mirrored that often seen in response to adverse events (eg, natural disasters 16 ). COVID-19 restrictions that confined individuals to their local area also compelled them to focus their in-person efforts locally. Commentators on the initial lockdown in the UK remarked on extraordinary acts of generosity between individuals who belonged to the same community but were unknown to each other. However, research on adverse events also tells us that such community support is not necessarily maintained in the longer term. 16

Meanwhile, online forms of social support are not bound by geography, thus enabling interactions and social support to be received from a wider network of people. Formal online social support spaces (eg, support groups) existed well before COVID-19, but have vastly increased since. While online interactions can increase perceived social support, it is unclear whether remote communication technologies provide an effective substitute from in-person interaction during periods of social distancing. 17 18 It makes intuitive sense that the usefulness of online social support will vary by the type of support offered, degree of social interaction and ‘online communication skills’ of those taking part. Youth workers, for instance, have struggled to keep vulnerable youth engaged in online youth clubs, 19 despite others finding a positive association between amount of digital technology used by individuals during lockdown and perceived social support. 20 Other research has found that more frequent face-to-face contact and phone/video contact both related to lower levels of depression during the time period of March to August 2020, but the negative effect of a lack of contact was greater for those with higher levels of usual sociability. 21 Relatedly, important inequalities in social support exist, such that individuals who occupy more socially disadvantaged positions in society (eg, low socioeconomic status, older people) tend to have less access to social support, 22 potentially exacerbated by COVID-19.

Social and interactional norms

Interactional norms are key relational mechanisms which build trust, belonging and identity within and across groups in a system. Individuals in groups and societies apply meaning by ‘approving, arranging and redefining’ symbols of interaction. 23 A handshake, for instance, is a powerful symbol of trust and equality. Depending on context, not shaking hands may symbolise a failure to extend friendship, or a failure to reach agreement. The norms governing these symbols represent shared values and identity; and mutual understanding of these symbols enables individuals to achieve orderly interactions, establish supportive relationship accountability and connect socially. 24 25

Physical distancing measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 radically altered these norms of interaction, particularly those used to convey trust, affinity, empathy and respect (eg, hugging, physical comforting). 26 As epidemic waves rose and fell, the work to negotiate these norms required intense cognitive effort; previously taken-for-granted interactions were re-examined, factoring in current restriction levels, own and (assumed) others’ vulnerability and tolerance of risk. This created awkwardness, and uncertainty, for example, around how to bring closure to an in-person interaction or convey warmth. The instability in scripted ways of interacting created particular strain for individuals who already struggled to encode and decode interactions with others (eg, those who are deaf or have autism spectrum disorder); difficulties often intensified by mask wearing. 27

Large social gatherings—for example, weddings, school assemblies, sporting events—also present key opportunities for affirming and assimilating interactional norms, building cohesion and shared identity and facilitating cooperation across social groups. 28 Online ‘equivalents’ do not easily support ‘social-bonding’ activities such as singing and dancing, and rarely enable chance/spontaneous one-on-one conversations with peripheral/weaker network ties (see the Social networks section) which can help strengthen bonds across a larger network. The loss of large gatherings to celebrate rites of passage (eg, bar mitzvah, weddings) has additional relational costs since these events are performed by and for communities to reinforce belonging, and to assist in transitioning to new phases of life. 29 The loss of interaction with diverse others via community and large group gatherings also reduces intergroup contact, which may then tend towards more prejudiced outgroup attitudes. While online interaction can go some way to mimicking these interaction norms, there are key differences. A sense of anonymity, and lack of in-person emotional cues, tends to support norms of polarisation and aggression in expressing differences of opinion online. And while online platforms have potential to provide intergroup contact, the tendency of much social media to form homogeneous ‘echo chambers’ can serve to further reduce intergroup contact. 30 31

Intimacy relates to the feeling of emotional connection and closeness with other human beings. Emotional connection, through romantic, friendship or familial relationships, fulfils a basic human need 32 and strongly benefits health, including reduced stress levels, improved mental health, lowered blood pressure and reduced risk of heart disease. 32 33 Intimacy can be fostered through familiarity, feeling understood and feeling accepted by close others. 34

Intimacy via companionship and closeness is fundamental to mental well-being. Positively, the COVID-19 pandemic has offered opportunities for individuals to (re)connect and (re)strengthen close relationships within their household via quality time together, following closure of many usual external social activities. Research suggests that the first full UK lockdown period led to a net gain in the quality of steady relationships at a population level, 35 but amplified existing inequalities in relationship quality. 35 36 For some in single-person households, the absence of a companion became more conspicuous, leading to feelings of loneliness and lower mental well-being. 37 38 Additional pandemic-related relational strain 39 40 resulted, for some, in the initiation or intensification of domestic abuse. 41 42

Physical touch is another key aspect of intimacy, a fundamental human need crucial in maintaining and developing intimacy within close relationships. 34 Restrictions on social interactions severely restricted the number and range of people with whom physical affection was possible. The reduction in opportunity to give and receive affectionate physical touch was not experienced equally. Many of those living alone found themselves completely without physical contact for extended periods. The deprivation of physical touch is evidenced to take a heavy emotional toll. 43 Even in future, once physical expressions of affection can resume, new levels of anxiety over germs may introduce hesitancy into previously fluent blending of physical and verbal intimate social connections. 44

The pandemic also led to shifts in practices and norms around sexual relationship building and maintenance, as individuals adapted and sought alternative ways of enacting sexual intimacy. This too is important, given that intimate sexual activity has known benefits for health. 45 46 Given that social restrictions hinged on reducing household mixing, possibilities for partnered sexual activity were primarily guided by living arrangements. While those in cohabiting relationships could potentially continue as before, those who were single or in non-cohabiting relationships generally had restricted opportunities to maintain their sexual relationships. Pornography consumption and digital partners were reported to increase since lockdown. 47 However, online interactions are qualitatively different from in-person interactions and do not provide the same opportunities for physical intimacy.

Recommendations and conclusions

In the sections above we have outlined the ways in which COVID-19 has impacted social relationships, showing how relational mechanisms key to health have been undermined. While some of the damage might well self-repair after the pandemic, there are opportunities inherent in deliberative efforts to build back in ways that facilitate greater resilience in social and community relationships. We conclude by making three recommendations: one regarding public health responses to the pandemic; and two regarding social recovery.

Recommendation 1: explicitly count the relational cost of public health policies to control the pandemic

Effective handling of a pandemic recognises that social, economic and health concerns are intricately interwoven. It is clear that future research and policy attention must focus on the social consequences. As described above, policies which restrict physical mixing across households carry heavy and unequal relational costs. These include for individuals (eg, loss of intimate touch), dyads (eg, loss of warmth, comfort), networks (eg, restricted access to support) and communities (eg, loss of cohesion and identity). Such costs—and their unequal impact—should not be ignored in short-term efforts to control an epidemic. Some public health responses—restrictions on international holiday travel and highly efficient test and trace systems—have relatively small relational costs and should be prioritised. At a national level, an earlier move to proportionate restrictions, and investment in effective test and trace systems, may help prevent escalation of spread to the point where a national lockdown or tight restrictions became an inevitability. Where policies with relational costs are unavoidable, close attention should be paid to the unequal relational impact for those whose personal circumstances differ from normative assumptions of two adult families. This includes consideration of whether expectations are fair (eg, for those who live alone), whether restrictions on social events are equitable across age group, religious/ethnic groupings and social class, and also to ensure that the language promoted by such policies (eg, households; families) is not exclusionary. 48 49 Forethought to unequal impacts on social relationships should thus be integral to the work of epidemic preparedness teams.

Recommendation 2: intelligently balance online and offline ways of relating

A key ingredient for well-being is ‘getting together’ in a physical sense. This is fundamental to a human need for intimate touch, physical comfort, reinforcing interactional norms and providing practical support. Emerging evidence suggests that online ways of relating cannot simply replace physical interactions. But online interaction has many benefits and for some it offers connections that did not exist previously. In particular, online platforms provide new forms of support for those unable to access offline services because of mobility issues (eg, older people) or because they are geographically isolated from their support community (eg, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) youth). Ultimately, multiple forms of online and offline social interactions are required to meet the needs of varying groups of people (eg, LGBTQ, older people). Future research and practice should aim to establish ways of using offline and online support in complementary and even synergistic ways, rather than veering between them as social restrictions expand and contract. Intelligent balancing of online and offline ways of relating also pertains to future policies on home and flexible working. A decision to switch to wholesale or obligatory homeworking should consider the risk to relational ‘group properties’ of the workplace community and their impact on employees’ well-being, focusing in particular on unequal impacts (eg, new vs established employees). Intelligent blending of online and in-person working is required to achieve flexibility while also nurturing supportive networks at work. Intelligent balance also implies strategies to build digital literacy and minimise digital exclusion, as well as coproducing solutions with intended beneficiaries.

Recommendation 3: build stronger and sustainable localised communities

In balancing offline and online ways of interacting, there is opportunity to capitalise on the potential for more localised, coherent communities due to scaled-down travel, homeworking and local focus that will ideally continue after restrictions end. There are potential economic benefits after the pandemic, such as increased trade as home workers use local resources (eg, coffee shops), but also relational benefits from stronger relationships around the orbit of the home and neighbourhood. Experience from previous crises shows that community volunteer efforts generated early on will wane over time in the absence of deliberate work to maintain them. Adequately funded partnerships between local government, third sector and community groups are required to sustain community assets that began as a direct response to the pandemic. Such partnerships could work to secure green spaces and indoor (non-commercial) meeting spaces that promote community interaction. Green spaces in particular provide a triple benefit in encouraging physical activity and mental health, as well as facilitating social bonding. 50 In building local communities, small community networks—that allow for diversity and break down ingroup/outgroup views—may be more helpful than the concept of ‘support bubbles’, which are exclusionary and less sustainable in the longer term. Rigorously designed intervention and evaluation—taking a systems approach—will be crucial in ensuring scale-up and sustainability.

The dramatic change to social interaction necessitated by efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 created stark challenges but also opportunities. Our essay highlights opportunities for learning, both to ensure the equity and humanity of physical restrictions, and to sustain the salutogenic effects of social relationships going forward. The starting point for capitalising on this learning is recognition of the disruption to relational mechanisms as a key part of the socioeconomic and health impact of the pandemic. In recovery planning, a general rule is that what is good for decreasing health inequalities (such as expanding social protection and public services and pursuing green inclusive growth strategies) 4 will also benefit relationships and safeguard relational mechanisms for future generations. Putting this into action will require political will.

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Twitter @karenmaxSPHSU, @Mark_McCann, @Rwilsonlowe, @KMitchinGlasgow

Contributors EL and KM led on the manuscript conceptualisation, review and editing. SP, KM, CB, RBP, RL, MM, JR, KS and RW-L contributed to drafting and revising the article. All authors assisted in revising the final draft.

Funding The research reported in this publication was supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00022/1, MC_UU_00022/3) and the Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU11, SPHSU14). EL is also supported by MRC Skills Development Fellowship Award (MR/S015078/1). KS and MM are also supported by a Medical Research Council Strategic Award (MC_PC_13027).

Competing interests None declared.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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COVID-19 photo essay: We’re all in this together

About the author, department of global communications.

The United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC) promotes global awareness and understanding of the work of the United Nations.

23 June 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic has  demonstrated the interconnected nature of our world – and that no one is safe until everyone is safe.  Only by acting in solidarity can communities save lives and overcome the devastating socio-economic impacts of the virus.  In partnership with the United Nations, people around the world are showing acts of humanity, inspiring hope for a better future. 

Everyone can do something    

Rauf Salem, a volunteer, instructs children on the right way to wash their hands, in Sana'a, Yemen.  Simple measures, such as maintaining physical distance, washing hands frequently and wearing a mask are imperative if the fight against COVID-19 is to be won.  Photo: UNICEF/UNI341697

Creating hope

Venezuelan refugee Juan Batista Ramos, 69, plays guitar in front of a mural he painted at the Tancredo Neves temporary shelter in Boa Vista, Brazil to help lift COVID-19 quarantine blues.  “Now, everywhere you look you will see a landscape to remind us that there is beauty in the world,” he says.  Ramos is among the many artists around the world using the power of culture to inspire hope and solidarity during the pandemic.  Photo: UNHCR/Allana Ferreira

Inclusive solutions

Wendy Schellemans, an education assistant at the Royal Woluwe Institute in Brussels, models a transparent face mask designed to help the hard of hearing.  The United Nations and partners are working to ensure that responses to COVID-19 leave no one behind.  Photo courtesy of Royal Woluwe Institute

Humanity at its best

Maryna, a community worker at the Arts Centre for Children and Youth in Chasiv Yar village, Ukraine, makes face masks on a sewing machine donated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and civil society partner, Proliska.  She is among the many people around the world who are voluntarily addressing the shortage of masks on the market. Photo: UNHCR/Artem Hetman

Keep future leaders learning

A mother helps her daughter Ange, 8, take classes on television at home in Man, Côte d'Ivoire.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, caregivers and educators have responded in stride and have been instrumental in finding ways to keep children learning.  In Côte d'Ivoire, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) partnered with the Ministry of Education on a ‘school at home’ initiative, which includes taping lessons to be aired on national TV and radio.  Ange says: “I like to study at home.  My mum is a teacher and helps me a lot.  Of course, I miss my friends, but I can sleep a bit longer in the morning.  Later I want to become a lawyer or judge."  Photo: UNICEF/UNI320749

Global solidarity

People in Nigeria’s Lagos State simulate sneezing into their elbows during a coronavirus prevention campaign.  Many African countries do not have strong health care systems.  “Global solidarity with Africa is an imperative – now and for recovering better,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.  “Ending the pandemic in Africa is essential for ending it across the world.” Photo: UNICEF Nigeria/2020/Ojo

A new way of working

Henri Abued Manzano, a tour guide at the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Vienna, speaks from his apartment.  COVID-19 upended the way people work, but they can be creative while in quarantine.  “We quickly decided that if visitors can’t come to us, we will have to come to them,” says Johanna Kleinert, Chief of the UNIS Visitors Service in Vienna.  Photo courtesy of Kevin Kühn

Life goes on

Hundreds of millions of babies are expected to be born during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Fionn, son of Chloe O'Doherty and her husband Patrick, is among them.  The couple says: “It's all over.  We did it.  Brought life into the world at a time when everything is so uncertain.  The relief and love are palpable.  Nothing else matters.”  Photo: UNICEF/UNI321984/Bopape

Putting meals on the table

Sudanese refugee Halima, in Tripoli, Libya, says food assistance is making her life better.  COVID-19 is exacerbating the existing hunger crisis.  Globally, 6 million more people could be pushed into extreme poverty unless the international community acts now.  United Nations aid agencies are appealing for more funding to reach vulnerable populations.  Photo: UNHCR

Supporting the frontlines

The United Nations Air Service, run by the World Food Programme (WFP), distributes protective gear donated by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Group, in Somalia. The United Nations is using its supply chain capacity to rapidly move badly needed personal protective equipment, such as medical masks, gloves, gowns and face-shields to the frontline of the battle against COVID-19. Photo: WFP/Jama Hassan  

S7-Episode 2: Bringing Health to the World

“You see, we're not doing this work to make ourselves feel better. That sort of conventional notion of what a do-gooder is. We're doing this work because we are totally convinced that it's not necessary in today's wealthy world for so many people to be experiencing discomfort, for so many people to be experiencing hardship, for so many people to have their lives and their livelihoods imperiled.”

Dr. David Nabarro has dedicated his life to global health. After a long career that’s taken him from the horrors of war torn Iraq, to the devastating aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami, he is still spurred to action by the tremendous inequalities in global access to medical care.

“The thing that keeps me awake most at night is the rampant inequities in our world…We see an awful lot of needless suffering.”

:: David Nabarro interviewed by Melissa Fleming

Brazilian ballet pirouettes during pandemic

Ballet Manguinhos, named for its favela in Rio de Janeiro, returns to the stage after a long absence during the COVID-19 pandemic. It counts 250 children and teenagers from the favela as its performers. The ballet group provides social support in a community where poverty, hunger and teen pregnancy are constant issues.

Radio journalist gives the facts on COVID-19 in Uzbekistan

The pandemic has put many people to the test, and journalists are no exception. Coronavirus has waged war not only against people's lives and well-being but has also spawned countless hoaxes and scientific falsehoods.

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JSmol Viewer

Anti-rbd antibody levels and ifn-γ-specific t cell response are associated with a more rapid swab reversion in patients with multiple sclerosis after the booster dose of covid-19 vaccination.

1. Introduction

2. materials and methods, 2.1. study cohort and design, 2.2. anti-sars-cov-2 antibodies, 2.3. ifn-γ-spike-specific t cell response, 2.4. statistical analysis, 3.1. characteristics of the studied population, 3.2. incidence of breakthrough infections and clinical features, 3.3. incidence of breakthrough infections and immune response, 3.4. covid-19 severity, 3.5. time of swab negativization, 4. discussion, 5. conclusions, supplementary materials, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Aiello, A.; Ruggieri, S.; Navarra, A.; Tortorella, C.; Vanini, V.; Haggiag, S.; Prosperini, L.; Cuzzi, G.; Salmi, A.; Quartuccio, M.E.; et al. Anti-RBD Antibody Levels and IFN-γ-Specific T Cell Response Are Associated with a More Rapid Swab Reversion in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis after the Booster Dose of COVID-19 Vaccination. Vaccines 2024 , 12 , 926. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines12080926

Aiello A, Ruggieri S, Navarra A, Tortorella C, Vanini V, Haggiag S, Prosperini L, Cuzzi G, Salmi A, Quartuccio ME, et al. Anti-RBD Antibody Levels and IFN-γ-Specific T Cell Response Are Associated with a More Rapid Swab Reversion in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis after the Booster Dose of COVID-19 Vaccination. Vaccines . 2024; 12(8):926. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines12080926

Aiello, Alessandra, Serena Ruggieri, Assunta Navarra, Carla Tortorella, Valentina Vanini, Shalom Haggiag, Luca Prosperini, Gilda Cuzzi, Andrea Salmi, Maria Esmeralda Quartuccio, and et al. 2024. "Anti-RBD Antibody Levels and IFN-γ-Specific T Cell Response Are Associated with a More Rapid Swab Reversion in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis after the Booster Dose of COVID-19 Vaccination" Vaccines 12, no. 8: 926. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines12080926

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FDA approves updated COVID-19 vaccine; shots should be available in days

This photo provided by Pfizer shows packaging for the company's updated COVID-19 vaccine for ages 12 and up. Credit: AP/Steven Decroos

Federal officials signed off on updated COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, designed to better protect people from the variants that have helped fuel a summer wave of cases.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna for people 12 years of age and older and issued an emergency use authorization for their vaccines designed for children between the ages of 6 months and 11.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will outline its recommendations on the updated vaccines on Friday at its fall/winter virus media briefing. The CDC has recommended the COVID-19 vaccines for everyone over the age of 6 months.

Both Pfizer and Moderna issued statements on Thursday saying the vaccines are ready to be distributed.

“Shipping will begin immediately to ensure robust supply and rapid access of this season’s vaccine in pharmacies, hospitals and clinics across the country,” Pfizer said.

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Moderna said its updated vaccine “is expected to be available in the coming days.”

The updated vaccines will be available earlier than in previous years, when it generally was released in mid-September. Experts hope this could give people more protection now as the summer wave of cases heads into the fall, when infections traditionally have increased as schools reopen.

This photo provided by Pfizer in August 2024 shows a vial of the company's updated COVID vaccine for ages 6 months-5 years old, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. Credit: AP/Steven Decroos

They also hope it convinces more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Only 22.5% of adults reported receiving updated vaccines between Sept. 14, 2023, and May 11, according to the CDC. And just 14.4% of children 17 years of age and younger received it.

“Vaccination continues to be the cornerstone of COVID-19 prevention,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. “These updated vaccines meet the agency’s rigorous, scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality.”

Marks encouraged eligible people to consider getting the vaccine, pointing to waning immunity to COVID-19 from both previous vaccinations and infections. The vaccines were updated to better protect against the omicron variant KP.2 strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, FDA officials said.

New York State Department of Health data shows 54% of the COVID-19 cases in the state correspond to the KP.2 variant.

This photo provided by Pfizer in August 2024 shows a vial of the company's updated COVID vaccine for ages 5-11, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. Credit: AP/Steven Decroos

Cases of COVID-19 across the United States and on Long Island have continued to increase or remain steady, according to some indicators. There were 194 people hospitalized on Long Island on Wednesday for a 7-day average of 6.68. It's a drop from July, when that statistic reached 8.06, with 234 hospitalizations, but similar to Aug. 21, 2023, when it was 6.60 with 192 hospitalizations.

Positive test results are also in line with this time last year. On Monday, 483 people tested positive for a 7-day average of 13.1%. But that's down from the 18.9% 7-day average on July 25 with 545 positive cases. Since tests taken by people in their homes are not counted, officials said these numbers likely only represent a portion of positive cases.

“I like the fact that it's coming at a little bit of an earlier interval than in the past,” Dr. Alan Bulbin, infectious disease director at Catholic Health’s St. Francis Hospital, said of the updated vaccines. “If you are someone who hasn’t had COVID-19 yet this summer, you view yourself as high risk or you haven’t had a shot since last fall, this is available to you immediately to protect you from what's happening right now."

Getting vaccinated is worthwhile even if it doesn’t always prevent a COVID-19 infection, said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of epidemiology and public health at Northwell Health.

“We need to be transparent with people,” Farber said. “This vaccine will hopefully prevent them from getting COVID for a relatively short period of time, eight to 12 weeks. But afterward, it will definitely prevent them from getting very ill with COVID and it will definitely make their COVID milder, and that's all we can expect. And that's a really good benefit.”

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.

'It's not if she's going to do it, it's when' Genevieve Rohner is a 16-year-old elite para-equestrian, who has one big goal in mind — the Paralympics.

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Hit Chinese Video Game Seeks to Curb ‘Negative Discourse’

Black Myth: Wukong tried to forbid influential overseas streamers from discussing “feminist propaganda,” Covid-19 and China’s video game industry policies.

By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Claire Fu

Black Myth: Wukong is one of the most highly anticipated Chinese video games ever, a premium title with a blockbuster-worthy budget that underscores the country’s push to become a global cultural power.

But ahead of its debut on Tuesday, a company affiliated with the game’s China-based developer rankled some influential overseas players with a list of topics to avoid discussing while livestreaming the game.

The list of forbidden subjects laid out in a document under “Don’ts” — politics, “feminist propaganda,” Covid-19, China’s video game industry policies and other content that “instigates negative discourse” — offered a glimpse of the restrictions that content creators face in China as well as the topics deemed sensitive to Beijing.

“I have never seen anything that shameful in my 15 years doing this job. This is very clearly a document which explains that we must censor ourselves,” said Benoit Reinier, a prominent video game streamer on YouTube and a French journalist, in a YouTube video .

Game Science, the game’s developer, and Hero Games, which is handling its marketing, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The game’s release is a landmark moment for China’s gaming industry. It is considered China’s first “AAA” title, a big-budget, global game with sophisticated gameplay and advanced graphics. Chinese news media has reported it is one of the most expensive games ever developed there, with a budget exceeding $50 million.

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Russia’s double-punch back against Ukraine’s shock raid

It is bombing ukrainians in kursk and advancing in pokrovsk.

T he order to move crackled over the radios at dawn on August 6th. Serhiy, a private in the 80th brigade, was among the first to emerge from the cover of the forest. By the time his unit crossed into Russia , supported by constant tank fire, the border had already been largely destroyed. “Our commanders didn’t spare a single round of artillery,” he says via voice messages from inside Russia’s Kursk region. Other Ukrainian troops report crossing the border on a wave of euphoria, with lines of prisoners almost immediately heading back in the other direction.

To assess Ukraine’s shock raid and its prospects The Economist has interviewed soldiers involved and sources familiar with decision-making by General Oleksandr Syrsky , Ukraine’s commander-in-chief. A picture emerges of a daring gamble born of desperation and in great secrecy. It has boosted morale and shown that Ukraine has developed effective new tactics. But 12 days in, progress has slowed and the outlines of a new front line are emerging. It is unclear whether troops can dig in or are overcommitted at the cost of front lines elsewhere. The biggest danger is around Pokrovsk, in the Donbas inside Ukraine where Kremlin forces are gaining ground fast.

Soldiers from the 82nd brigade, the second of four involved in the opening assault, say fighting has grown increasingly intense after the initial euphoric gains. In the early exchanges there had been only one serious fight, when Russians tried to ambush them from maize fields near the first village. The Ukrainians, who somehow had a monopoly of reconnaissance drones in the sky, saw the enemy and ordered them to surrender. They didn’t. So they fired everything they had until the maize stopped rustling, and silence fell. Then the Ukrainians moved on.

A low profile, and clever tactics—such as using so-called FPV drones to provide air cover—allowed the Ukrainians to sweep through the Russian countryside. They were pursued by Russian helicopters and glide bombs, which often fell on Russian villages below, but on the ground they faced little serious resistance. The 82nd brigade pushed eastwards, in the direction of the village of Bolshoye Soldatskoye, while the 80th headed west to Malaya Loknya. Small units probed for vulnerabilities before heavier armour was committed. It was a “manoeuvre attack”, akin to the tactics used by Russia’s commander, Valery Gerasimov, says a source in Ukraine’s general staff. For the first five days, it was devastatingly effective.

Desperate times, desperate measures

The plan to invade part of Russia did not come from a happy place. In early July, General Syrsky, Ukraine’s newly appointed top commander, was under pressure. For months he had been grappling with a less-than-ideal inheritance from his predecessor, Valery Zaluzhny, and the army’s leadership was at odds with the president over mobilisation policies, leading to significant manpower shortages. In America Congress had delayed support. Avdiivka, a stronghold north of Donetsk, had consequently fallen. Front lines in the Donetsk region were crumbling, most especially around the logistical hub of Pokrovsk. Rumours circulated that General Syrsky was on the verge of being dismissed, with attack dogs associated with Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s all-powerful chief of staff, even suggesting he had been “lying” to his bosses.

Amid the turmoil, the commander began his planning. “Syrsky isn’t good at political games,” says a source close to the general. “What he is good at is war.” Several scenarios were considered for an offensive push at the weakest points in the Russian line: a strike in Bryansk region in the north; a strike in Kursk region; a combination of the two; or more. The main objective was to draw troops away from the Donbas stranglehold, and to create bargaining chips for any future negotiation. General Syrsky kept his plans under wraps, sharing them only with a tight group of generals and security officials. He spoke to the president on a one-on-one basis, without his staff. The army’s intelligence did much of the reconnaissance, rather than leaving it to HUR , Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, which was included only at a late stage.

Western allies were also deliberately left in the dark, claims the source. “Syrsky had two previous operations undermined by the West. One was leaked to the Russians, and on another occasion, we were instructed to abort.” Limiting communication to a need-to-know basis enabled the Ukrainians to launch their attack before the Russians grasped what was happening. “They realised something was afoot but likely assumed we would need American approval for such a daring operation.” Having been presented with a fait accompli the West did not object.

General Syrsky confused the enemy by concealing the arrival of his most battle-hardened divisions. Reinforcements were brought to the forests near the border under the pretext of defending against a supposed Russian attack on Sumy. At the same time, a narrative appeared in Ukrainian media about an imminent Russian invasion. “The rotation happened about a week and a half before the start of Kursk operation,” recalls Serhiy. “The Russians continued to believe that we were simply defending the border.”

The soldiers themselves started to suspect something big was happening in early August, when they were suddenly issued with equipment: new helmets with integrated headphones, new assault rifles. They did training exercises on mock-ups later understood to represent Russian villages. The 80th brigade began preparing for a second-wave attack. General Syrsky saved most of his attacking forces for this second line, which may be why Russia initially thought the breakthrough was not too serious. The soldiers say they didn’t believe their commanders when he told them about the plans. “We laughed,” recalls Private Serhiy. “We joked that it wasn’t April 1st. The commander just smiled, knowing we had no idea what was awaiting us.”

Russia responds

General Syrsky is a pedant for detail. Yet while the first phase was planned meticulously the campaign is now developing in an ad hoc fashion. With the element of surprise lost, the Ukrainian advances have slowed. President Zelensky is still pushing for maximum progress, a source in the general staff says. But his top soldier is cautious, concentrating on expanding the flanks along the border to create more defensible lines. “Syrsky is no fool,” his confidante says. “He knows that rushing ahead risks the whole operation.” In recent days, an expanded Ukrainian contingent of 10,000-20,000 soldiers appears to be focused on establishing control on the southern bank of the Seim river to the north-west of Sudzha. On August 16th, Ukrainian missiles destroyed a bridge over the river at Glushkovo. And on August 18th Ukraine’s air force said that it had blown up a second bridge over the Seim.

General Syrsky’s great gamble has offered Ukrainians hope after a year of consistently grim news. It has also given him renewed authority. But the long-term success or otherwise of the operation will depend largely on how Russia responds. It appears to be pursuing a twin approach of responding more aggressively to the incursion while also sustaining pressure inside Ukraine along the line in the Donbas. The Kremlin’s goal will be to turn Kursk into little more than an embarrassing mosquito bite amid a bloodbath inside Ukraine.

Evidence of an intensifying response inside Kursk is now clear. Ukrainian soldiers on the ground inside Russia say they are already beginning to see a different level of resistance. Losses are increasing. The Russians have reinforced with better trained units, including marines and special forces. They had studied the area. This belated Russian response to the incursion in Kursk has forced it to divert some troops from strangleholds inside Ukraine in the Donbas. Reflecting this, a Ukrainian government source says military activity in the Donbas has significantly decreased since August 16th. However there is a big exception: Pokrovsk, the town where Russia was making steady advances before the incursion and where it is seeking to maintain heavy pressure on Ukraine.

The scene is thus set for a dramatic moment in the war: Ukraine wants to sustain its attack inside Russia and disrupt the contours of the frontline, changing the defeatist narrative about a frozen conflict to which negotiation is the only answer. Russia wants to crush the incursion and exploit the resulting depletion of Ukraine’s resources by pressing home its assault elsewhere, in Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian troops inside Russia are more vulnerable but still defiant. “The bastards have figured out how to fight and they understand our tactics,” says Private Serhiy in the 80th. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t understand their tactics—or that we won’t continue to take them down.” ■

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