An Overview of Past Pandemics, COVID-19 Etiology, Progression, and Current Status (Essay Sample)

An Overview of Past Pandemics, COVID-19 Etiology, Progression, and Current Status
Name of StudentAuthor AffiliationCourse Number and NameInstructor NameAssignment Due Date (Month Day, Year)
Abstract
Over the past century, the world has gone through four global influenza pandemics, each of which resulted in economic burden, societal disruption and worldwide deaths. Now, a new pandemic has emerged, known as COVID-19, caused by a novel corona virus strain called SARS-CoV-2. Emerging in Wuhan City, China, it soon spread globally and was termed as a pandemic. The disease has caused immense societal issues such as closure of schools and business, retrieved trade and air travel and numerous deaths whose number is sharply rising every day. This paper attempts to provide a timeline of past pandemics, details the etiology of COVID-19 and highlights the progression and current status of the disease.
Keywords: COVID-19, Coronavirus, pandemic, past pandemics, etiology, current status
An Overview of Past Pandemics, COVID-19 Etiology, Progression, and Current Status
The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), formally known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for causing the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 originated from Wuhan city, China and turbulently spread to other cities of China (Wang, Horby, Hayden, & Gao, 2020). The World Health Organization (WHO) announced, on 11th March 2020, that COVID-19 had become a pandemic. As of April 12, 2020, there have been 1 696 588 confirmed cases and 105 952 deaths due to the virus (World Health Organization, 2020).