Question

Letter writing: Write a letter to your uncle in Australia, describing the pandemic situation (COVID-19) in India. Also express your feelings and difficulties you are facing as a student. ​

Answer 1

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)[2][3] is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] Colloquially known as simply the coronavirus, it was previously referred to by its provisional name, 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV),[5][6][7][8] and has also been called human coronavirus 2019 (HCoV-19 or hCoV-19).[9][10][11][12] The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020.

SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus[15][16] (and hence Baltimore class IV[17]) that is contagious in humans.[18] As described by the US National Institutes of Health, it is the successor to SARS-CoV-1,[11][19] the virus that caused the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.

Taxonomically, SARS-CoV-2 is a virus of the species severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus (SARSr-CoV).[2] It is believed to have zoonotic origins and has close genetic similarity to bat coronaviruses, suggesting it emerged from a bat-borne virus.[20][21][22][10] Research is ongoing as to whether SARS-CoV-2 came directly from bats or indirectly through any intermediate hosts.[23][24] The virus shows little genetic diversity, indicating that the spillover event introducing SARS-CoV-2 to humans is likely to have occurred in late 2019.[25]

Epidemiological studies estimate that each infection results in an average of 2.39-3.44 new ones when no members of the community are immune and no preventive measures are taken.[26] The virus primarily spreads between people through close contact and via respiratory droplets produced from coughs or sneezes.[27][28] It mainly enters human cells by binding to the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)