A case study on COVID 19-How the World Tackled the Pandemic please help
Answers
Taken from the April 2020 issue of Physics World where it appeared under the title "Fighting a pandemic". Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app.
The latest novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has reached pandemic status. While health workers and governments do their part, scientists are trying to understand the virus and develop vaccines and treatments. Jon Cartwright looks at how physics plays an important role in the fight
Doctors in Wuhan
Zhao Jianping (third from right), a respiratory and critical care specialist, instructs his colleagues at a severe case ward in Wuhan, China on 18 February 2020. (Courtesy: Xinhua/Shutterstock)
It probably originated in one of the several species of horseshoe bat found throughout east and south-east Asia. Possibly, a pig or another animal ate the bat’s droppings off a piece of fruit, before being sold at a wet market in Wuhan, China, and subsequently infecting one of the stallholders. Or maybe the first transmission to a human occurred elsewhere.
There is a lot we don’t know about the novel coronavirus now called SARS-CoV-2 and its resultant disease, COVID-19. What we do know is that Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to the first known cases in Wuhan at the end of last year. Less than a fortnight later, one of those infected people was dead. By the end of January, with more than 10,000 diagnosed cases and 200 fatalities in China alone, and with the virus cropping up far beyond the country’s borders, the WHO declared a global emergency.
As of this article’s publication (19 March), the WHO reports that the virus has spread to 166 countries, areas and territories, with over 205,000 confirmed cases worldwide and the number of deaths exceeding 8500. The status of “pandemic” was officially designated on 11 March and many countries have introduced social distancing, travel restrictions and quarantine methods to try to curb the spread. Festivals, sports events, parades and conferences are being called off due to the front-line support services they require and the concern that large gatherings of people could help spread the virus. The American Physical Society, for example, axed both its annual March meeting in Denver, Colorado, and April meeting in Washington DC.
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