COVID-19

For the past few months, there has been an outbreak of a disease named the "Corona Virus"

which is also known as "COVID-19". It has been a threat to the world where hundreds of thousands

of people have been infected and thousands are dead. The World Health Organization (WHO) has

declared this virus outbreak a global health emergency. "The main reason for this declaration is not

what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries," said WHO chief Tedros

Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The virus originally started growing from Wuhan, China and has been spreading rapidly throughout

the globe. The disease that only started as an epidemic has now become pandemic. Over seven

hundred thousand have been infected with COVID-19 and almost around forty thousand dead. This

disease has been detected in over 200 countries in which Italy, the US, Spain have the highest

number of infected people following China. The Chinese government responded to the outbreak by

placing Wuhan and nearby cities under a de-facto quarantine encompassing roughly 50 million

people in Hubei province. This quarantine is slowly being lifted and the province is under

observation. US has been the new epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak as it has surpassed the

number of confirmed cases than China. " As of 31st March, the country has one hundred sixty-four

thousand six hundred and ten confirmed infections and three Thailand one hundred and seventy

deaths." Confirms a local news Chanel in the US. Due to this outbreak, a lot of countries have been

going on lockdown shutting down cinemas, gyms, bars, restaurants, clubs, etc. Most countries have

also shut schools, cafés, and non-essential stores. People are being strictly asked to follow social

distancing and are being told not to get out of their houses unless its an emergency. A lot of

countries have also been punishing civilians who are found roaming around the streets during the

lockdown. People are self-isolating themselves in their houses and have been stocking up groceries

and essential items for their survival. All offices have been closed and thousands of people have
been unemployed due to this pandemic. All office workers have been working from home and

students have been taking online classes.

What exactly is COVID-19?

COVID-19 is one of the coronaviruses among a large group of viruses that are known to

affect both humans and animals. It causes infections and respiratory illnesses that can start with a

simple symptom such as common cold to much more critical infections. Another well-known

coronavirus that was epidemic was severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (sars) which was also first

detected in the south of China in 2002. It wasn't as pandemic as COVID-19 but it affected twenty-

six countries leading to more than eight thousand cases and more than seven hundred deaths.

COVID-19 has also been named sars-coV-2 as Chinese health authorities identified that it was

caused by a similar genetic sequence to sars. Although symptoms of coronavirus are usually mild,

they are common and can be mistaken for flu or common cold. The first symptoms of COVID-19

are fever and dry cough which can lead to bronchitis or pneumonia.

Misconceptions about the Disease

There is a lot of fake news going on around the world worsening the situation and increasing a lot

of misconceptions. Firstly, the biggest misconception regarding the coronavirus is that civilians

believe that there are vaccinations available to cure this virus, they believe that they can protect

themselves from the coronavirus by swallowing bleach, taking acid and steroids and other

substances whereas the truth is— non of the above measures can protect anyone from the

coronavirus, instead it will lead to more deaths due to lack of knowledge. The only way the corona

virus can be prevented is by washing your hands frequently and thoroughly using soap and hot

water, sanitizing yourself regularly. Avoiding close contact with people who are sick, coughing and

sneezing. Wearing clinical filter face masks while being out in public is as equally as important as

avoiding contact.

One of the misconceptions regarding the COVID-19 virus is that people assume the coronavirus

causes instant death and has killed a lot of people all over the world, whereas in China only 2.3% of
all confirmed cases died. Although more people are dying every day there are a lot of people who

are recovering as well. Closing borders with China or other countries is not going to stop the virus

from spreading but instead, it increases the risk of ruining relations with the countries.

Finally, there are assumptions regarding the coronavirus stating that the coronavirus is the deadliest

virus to date whereas, the flu has killed more people than the coronavirus. This virus causes death to

those who already have an underlying disease or those who have a weak immune system.

It is obvious that being a major health emergency a lot of people are curious about the disease and

will have their assumptions which will one way or another lead to rumors and myths that is why

being educated and having proper knowledge about the situation is equally as important as taking

precautions.

Symptoms of COVID-19

The coronavirus has similar symptoms to common flu and common cold such as running

nose, sore throat, and dry cough. Other symptoms of the common cold are not similar to the

symptoms of COVID-19 yet some people are stubborn enough to not get tested for coronavirus

thinking its just some common cold. Generally, people infected with the corona virus start showing

their symptoms properly only after 14 days that is why doctors have strictly recommended self-

quarantine for 14 days. After that, the main symptoms for COVID-19 are fever, tiredness and dry

cough and difficulty in breathing. Around 80% recover from the disease without needing special

treatment claims WHO. As mentioned before older people who already have other underlying

diseases are the ones who have higher chances of dying due to the coronavirus, or else coronavirus

can be cured after proper care. Professionals also confirm that people with weak immune symptoms

are prone to COVID-19 hence consumption of High protein and Vitamin-D helps to boost a

person's immune system for prevention.

"Social distancing is fundamentally important so that the possibility of COVID-19 spreading is

reduced, and in effect, less people die. Current mortality estimates vary. Areas that diagnose faster

and have enough hospital beds for patients fare better: for example, South Korea has an estimated
case fatality rate of only 0.9%; whereas in China the mortality rate was estimated to be 4%; and in

Italy, it is nearing 8%.( WHO situation report-59)

COVID-19 effects in Nepal

WHO congratulated Nepal for not having a single person infected with the coronavirus and

being cleared as a safe country, whereas the truth is that there were not any medical kits in Nepal to

test anyone for corona. There aren't enough hospital beds or quarantine beds for people who are

infected with corona left alone those who might be positive for corona. In simple words, a

developing country such as Nepal does not have the right resources or proper education about the

disease to protect or cure patients. Due to a lack of proper education people getting more drawn into

superstitious ways or getting rid of corona rather than scientific ways. People in the rural areas of

the country do not even know what corona is, let alone they might already be infected with it due to

all the foreigners that had visited the country in January as it was supposed to be

"Visit Nepal 2020" this year. Finally, some hospitals have imported the tools and kits necessary for

testing the virus and out of seven hundred cases 3 have been tested positive. A country with thirty

million people only seven hundred have tested for the virus. Most people are taking the symptoms

of the corona Virus as normal flu or common cold. People are not going to be tested for the

coronavirus if they do not get tested in the first place. "To put it in context Nepal is the only country

on earth to have diagnosed a patient in January and then have no following cases. ( Novel

coronavirus situation report; 25 January 2020)". "In terms of intensive care units (ICUs), the

Government of Nepal is only planning on adding around 200 beds. This means that, even with

existing ICU capacity, Nepal is only able of managing a few hundred severe patients of COVID-19

at best." (Priyanka Chand; March 2020).Comparing it with Italy which is ranked as the second-best

country for health care with more than two thousand ICU beds which is still struggling to put this

pandemic under control.

References

Bai, Y., Yao, L., Wei, T., Tian, F., Jin, D. Y., Chen, L., & Wang, M. (2020). Presumed

asymptomatic carrier transmission of COVID-19. Jama.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-coronavirus

https://www.who.int

Rajbhandari, B., Phuyal, N., Shrestha, B., & Thapa, M. (2020). Air Medical Evacuation of

Nepalese Citizen During the Epidemic of COVID-19 from Wuhan to Nepal. Journal of the Nepal

Medical Association, 58(222).

World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): situation

report, 59.

Xu, Z., Shi, L., Wang, Y., Zhang, J., Huang, L., Zhang, C., ... & Tai, Y. (2020). Pathological

findings of COVID-19 associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome. The Lancet respiratory

medicine.