The COVID-19 pandemic: A Comprehensive Review of the Genomic variations, Epidemiological features, Diagnosis, Treatment and Intervention schemes in South Asia

The ongoing respiratory disease pandemic COVID-19 caused by a newly emerging highly infectious virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is aggravating the world’s health, economy and regular life. This unprecedented respiratory outbreak has already infected more than 43 million individuals and taken more than 1.1 million lives. The habitation of over 21% of the world’s population- the SAARC region is also susceptible to COVID-19 and comprises of more than 20% of the total infected cases. Demographic analysis showed that males and younger populations are mostly infected in South Asian countries. Similar genomic variations were observed in the countries such as variations in the ORF1ab, ORF1a, ORF3a and S genes were largely seen. As no effective treatment strategy hasn’t developed yet, only timely testing and tracing can mitigate the loss from the disease which led the way to the development of alternate screening methods with higher efficiency and timely results. Since no unanimously recognized treatment option is available, existing medicines and treatments are being utilized to treat the patients. Currently, a vaccine can be the ideal solution for this rapidly evolving disease and hence two South Asian country- Bangladesh and India has joined the race of vaccine development and one of them succeeded the phase II clinical trial. As the ‘Second Wave of COVID-19’ is approaching, it has become a matter of urgency to appraise the existing policies and strategies in order to ascertain and implement effective schemes that can mitigate the ramifications of the disease.