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The COVID-19 portal

SARS-CoV-2 as seen by a cryo-electron tomography scan.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease has since spread worldwide, leading to an ongoing pandemic.

Several COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and distributed in various countries, which have initiated mass vaccination campaigns. Other preventive measures include physical or social distancing, quarantining, ventilation of indoor spaces, covering coughs and sneezes, hand washing, and keeping unwashed hands away from the face. The use of face masks or coverings has been recommended in public settings to minimize the risk of transmissions. While work is underway to develop drugs that inhibit the virus, the primary treatment is symptomatic. Management involves the treatment of symptoms, supportive care, isolation, and experimental measures. (Full article...)

About the virus

This colorized transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19—isolated from a patient in the U.S.

SARS‑CoV‑2 belongs to the broad family of viruses known as coronaviruses. It is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA) virus, with a single linear RNA segment. Coronaviruses infect humans, other mammals, including livestock and companion animals, and avian species. Human coronaviruses are capable of causing illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS, fatality rate ~34%). SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh known coronavirus to infect people, after 229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1, MERS-CoV, and the original SARS-CoV.

Like the SARS-related coronavirus implicated in the 2003 SARS outbreak, SARS‑CoV‑2 is a member of the subgenus Sarbecovirus (beta-CoV lineage B). Coronaviruses undergo frequent recombination. The mechanism of recombination in unsegmented RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 is generally by copy-choice replication, in which gene material switches from one RNA template molecule to another during replication. SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequence is approximately 30,000 bases in length, relatively long for a coronavirus (which in turn carry the largest genomes among all RNA families) Its genome consists nearly entirely of protein-coding sequences, a trait shared with other coronaviruses. (Full article...)

About the symptoms and spread

Symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Symptoms of COVID-19 are variable, ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Common symptoms include headache, loss of smell and taste, nasal congestion and runny nose, cough, muscle pain, sore throat, fever, diarrhea, and breathing difficulties. People with the same infection may have different symptoms, and their symptoms may change over time. Three common clusters of symptoms have been identified: one respiratory symptom cluster with cough, sputum, shortness of breath, and fever; a musculoskeletal symptom cluster with muscle and joint pain, headache, and fatigue; a cluster of digestive symptoms with abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. In people without prior ear, nose, and throat disorders, loss of taste combined with loss of smell is associated with COVID-19 and is reported in as many as 88% of cases

As is common with infections, there is a delay between the moment a person first becomes infected and the appearance of the first symptoms. The median delay for COVID-19 is four to five days. Most symptomatic people experience symptoms within two to seven days after exposure, and almost all will experience at least one symptom within 12 days. (Full article...)

The disease is mainly transmitted via the respiratory route when people inhale droplets and small airborne particles (that form an aerosol) that infected people breath out as they breathe, talk, cough, sneeze, or sing. Infected people are more likely to transmit COVID-19 when they are physically close. However, infection can occur over longer distances, particularly indoors. 2). (Full article...)

Disease progress

Cases
241,132,266

Deaths
4,905,094

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COVID-19 pandemic by location

Location		Cases	Deaths
	World	241,132,266	4,905,094
	United States	45,050,910	725,835
	European Union	38,968,302	784,449
	India	34,094,373	452,454
	Brazil	21,651,910	603,465
	United Kingdom	8,537,650	139,042
	Russia	7,903,963	220,323
	Turkey	7,683,487	67,837
	France	7,190,716	118,232
	Iran	5,796,659	124,256
	Argentina	5,273,463	115,704
	Spain	4,988,878	87,030
	Colombia	4,982,575	126,886
	Italy	4,719,493	131,585
	Germany	4,388,581	94,720
	Indonesia	4,235,384	142,999
	Mexico	3,758,469	284,477
	Poland	2,941,126	76,115
	South Africa	2,916,803	88,619
	Ukraine	2,767,743	64,797
	Philippines	2,727,286	40,761
	Malaysia	2,396,121	27,993
	Peru	2,190,396	199,882
	Netherlands	2,090,522	18,684
	Iraq	2,037,012	22,785
	Thailand	1,793,812	18,336
	Japan	1,715,745	18,129
	Czechia	1,709,716	30,554
	Canada	1,693,364	28,616
	Chile	1,672,065	37,620
	Bangladesh	1,565,827	27,778
	Romania	1,467,401	42,042
	Israel	1,317,758	8,010
	Belgium	1,289,033	25,780
	Pakistan	1,265,650	28,300
	Sweden	1,161,933	14,956
	Portugal	1,080,097	18,100
	Serbia	1,055,296	9,157
	Kazakhstan	997,537	16,713
	Morocco	942,280	14,561
	Cuba	936,809	8,079
	Vietnam	867,221	21,269
	Switzerland	856,957	11,162
	Jordan	843,204	10,887
	Hungary	836,389	30,402
	Nepal	805,560	11,293
	Austria	777,679	11,180
	United Arab Emirates	738,690	2,120
	Tunisia	710,953	25,100
	Greece	697,033	15,418
	Georgia	664,813	9,510
	Lebanon	634,209	8,430
	Guatemala	588,262	14,387
	Belarus	573,943	4,417
	Costa Rica	552,953	6,857
	Saudi Arabia	547,969	8,765
	Bulgaria	545,598	22,488
	Sri Lanka	532,218	13,507
	Ecuador	513,026	32,899
	Bolivia	507,134	18,834
	Azerbaijan	503,452	6,778
	Myanmar	488,875	18,388
	Panama	470,395	7,294
	Paraguay	460,553	16,228
	Palestine	448,322	4,585
	Slovakia	437,938	12,854
	Croatia	428,233	8,907
	Republic of Ireland	416,690	5,306
	Kuwait	412,371	2,458
	Venezuela	394,061	4,734
	Uruguay	391,167	6,069
	Honduras	372,179	10,096
	Dominican Republic	371,447	4,090
	Denmark	371,407	2,690
	Lithuania	370,119	5,456
	Ethiopia	359,495	6,238
	Libya	350,628	4,904
	South Korea	344,518	2,689
	Mongolia	340,839	1,574
	Egypt	319,339	18,015
	Moldova	317,899	7,273
	Slovenia	308,501	4,641
	Oman	304,066	4,106
	Armenia	283,183	5,805
	Bahrain	276,188	1,391
	Kenya	252,066	5,224
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	245,082	11,201
	Qatar	237,996	608
	Zambia	209,536	3,658
	Nigeria	209,387	2,838
	Algeria	205,364	5,873
	North Macedonia	197,197	6,964
	Norway	196,896	884
	Latvia	186,869	2,897
	Botswana	184,051	2,389
	Uzbekistan	181,312	1,290
	Kyrgyzstan	179,913	2,636
	Albania	178,188	2,829
	Estonia	173,335	1,429
	Kosovo	160,541	2,973
	Afghanistan	155,776	7,246
	Finland	151,207	1,120
	Mozambique	151,112	1,927
	Singapore	150,731	239
	Australia	147,301	1,558
	Montenegro	138,047	2,036
	Zimbabwe	132,368	4,658
	Ghana	129,440	1,167
	Namibia	128,353	3,540
	Uganda	125,261	3,185
	Cyprus	122,362	565
	Cambodia	116,860	2,670
	El Salvador	110,188	3,490
	Rwanda	99,181	1,313
	Cameroon	98,402	1,550
	China	96,648	4,636
	Jamaica	87,586	2,117
	Maldives	86,211	238
	Luxembourg	79,982	839
	Senegal	73,873	1,871
	Angola	63,012	1,670
	Malawi	61,726	2,294
	Ivory Coast	61,072	685
	Democratic Republic of the Congo	57,338	1,091
	Trinidad and Tobago	54,267	1,605
	Fiji	51,846	663
	Suriname	46,996	1,029
	Eswatini	46,371	1,235
	Madagascar	43,616	960
	Sudan	39,839	3,038
	Syria	39,488	2,429
	Cabo Verde	38,049	347
	Malta	37,464	459
	Mauritania	36,722	789
	Guyana	34,514	875
	Gabon	33,842	218
	Laos	32,314	40
	Guinea	30,572	385
	Tanzania	26,034	724
	Togo	25,903	239
	Papua New Guinea	24,857	309
	Benin	24,560	161
	Belize	24,447	465
	Haiti	23,042	657
	Bahamas	21,978	626
	Seychelles	21,947	119
	Lesotho	21,530	655
	Somalia	21,269	1,180
	Burundi	19,730	38
	Timor-Leste	19,725	119
	Tajikistan	17,484	125
	Mauritius	16,669	134
	Taiwan	16,337	846
	Republic of the Congo	15,962	231
	Nicaragua	15,737	206
	Mali	15,643	557
	Andorra	15,367	130
	Burkina Faso	14,752	203
	Djibouti	13,415	181
	Barbados	13,171	119
	Equatorial Guinea	13,020	161
	Iceland	12,614	33
	Hong Kong	12,299	213
	Saint Lucia	12,234	237
	South Sudan	12,225	130
	Central African Republic	11,478	100
	Brunei	11,047	76
	Gambia	9,946	339
	Yemen	9,556	1,807
	Eritrea	6,776	45
	Sierra Leone	6,397	121
	Niger	6,177	205
	Guinea-Bissau	6,130	141
	Liberia	5,807	286
	Grenada	5,769	193
	San Marino	5,475	91
	New Zealand	5,154	28
	Chad	5,069	174
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	4,627	53
	Comoros	4,190	147
	Dominica	4,153	28
	Antigua and Barbuda	3,918	95
	Sao Tome and Principe	3,677	56
	Liechtenstein	3,589	60
	Monaco	3,363	35
	Bhutan	2,617	3
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	2,556	21
	Vatican City	27	0
	Solomon Islands	20	—
	Palau	8	0
	Vanuatu	4	1
	Marshall Islands	4	—
	Samoa	3	—
	Kiribati	2	—
	Federated States of Micronesia	1	0

(Full article...)

National responses

Due to the pandemic in Europe, many countries in the Schengen Area have restricted free movement and set up border controls. National reactions have included containment measures such as quarantines and curfews (known as stay-at-home orders, shelter-in-place orders, or lockdowns). The WHO's recommendation on curfews and lockdowns is that they should be short-term measures to reorganise, regroup, rebalance resources, and protect health workers who are exhausted. To achieve a balance between restrictions and normal life, the long-term responses to the pandemic should consist of strict personal hygiene, effective contact tracing, and isolating when ill.

(Full article...)

Videos

• Play media

  Animation describing the structure of a coronavirus

• Play media

  Video about what SARS-CoV-2 does to the human body

• Play media

  Video about the transmission of coronaviruses

(More videos...)

Recent news

19 October 2021 – COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria

Bulgaria launches its COVID-19 Green Certificate which indicates that a person is either vaccinated, has tested negative, or has recovered from COVID-19. The certificate will be mandatory for all indoor activities beginning on October 21. (Novinite)

COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand

New Zealand reports a record 94 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (The Guardian)

COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore

Singapore reports a record 3,994 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 154,725. (Today)

Did you know?

• ... that the Association of Black Cardiologists has shared resources on the impact of coronavirus disease on black communities in response to the higher death rates seen among African Americans?
• ... that after suspected coronavirus patients in Maharashtra, India, started fleeing hospitals, the government directed officials to stamp the left hand of those quarantined at home using indelible ink?
• ... that infectious disease specialist Daniel R. Lucey has hypothesised that the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak may have been quietly circulating among humans since at least November 2019?
• ... that professor Neil Ferguson and his team believe that significantly more people in China have been infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus than has been reported?
• ... that a vote of no confidence was successfully brought against the Kurti cabinet following a cabinet minister's dismissal over disagreements on how to manage the coronavirus pandemic in Kosovo?
• ... that a man suspected of carrying coronavirus in Nepal ran away from the hospital?
  (More did you know facts...)

Data maps

Cases and deaths

• 

  Total confirmed cases by reporting area

    3,000 + per 100,000 inhabitants

    1,000–3,00 per 100,000 inhabitants

    300–1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants

    100–300 per 100,000 inhabitants

    30–100 per 100,000 inhabitants

    0–30 per 100,000 inhabitants

    None or no data
• 

  Total confirmed deaths by country

    100+ per 100,000 inhabitants

    18–100 per 100,000 inhabitants

    3.3–18 per 100,000 inhabitants

    0.6–3.3 per 100,000 inhabitants

    0.1–0.6 per 100,000 inhabitants

    <0.1 per 100,000 inhabitants

    None or no data

(More statistics...)

Economic impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching economic consequences beyond the spread of the disease itself and efforts to quarantine it. As the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread around the globe, concerns have shifted from supply-side manufacturing issues to decreased business in the services sector. The pandemic caused the 2nd largest global recession in history, with more than a third of the global population at the time being placed on lockdown.

Global stock markets fell on 24 February 2020 due to a significant rise in the number of COVID-19 cases outside mainland China. By 28 February 2020, stock markets worldwide realized their largest single-week declines since the financial crisis of 2007–2008. This culminated in the 2020 stock market crash. (Full article...)

Workplace

The hierarchy of hazard controls contains methods for controlling exposures to hazards. Methods listed towards the top potentially more effective than those at the bottom at reducing the risk of illness or injury.

Hazard controls for COVID-19 in workplaces are the application of occupational safety and health methodologies for hazard controls to the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Vaccination is the most effective way to protect against severe illness or death from COVID-19. Multiple layers of controls are recommended, including measures such as telework and flexible schedules, increased ventilation, personal protective equipment (PPE) and face coverings, physical distancing, and enhanced cleaning programs. (Full article...)

Misinformation

COVID-19 misinformation refers to any kind of subject about the COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in misinformation and conspiracy theories about the scale of the pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease. False information, including intentional disinformation, has been spread through social media, text messaging, and mass media. False information has been propagated by celebrities, politicians, and other prominent public figures. Multiple countries have passed laws against "fake news", and thousands of people have been arrested for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The spread of COVID-19 misinformation by governments has also been significant. (Full article...)

Testing

COVID-19 testing involves analyzing samples to assess the current or past presence of SARS-CoV-2. The two main branches detect either the presence of the virus or of antibodies produced in response to infection. Molecular tests for viral presence through its molecular components are used to diagnose individual cases and to allow public health authorities to trace and contain outbreaks. Antibody tests (serology immunoassays) instead show whether someone once had the disease. They are less useful for diagnosing current infections because antibodies may not develop for weeks after infection. It is used to assess disease prevalence, which aids the estimation of the infection fatality rate. (Full article...)

Vaccine research

A COVID‑19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19). Prior to the COVID‑19 pandemic, an established body of knowledge existed about the structure and function of coronaviruses causing diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). This knowledge accelerated the development of various vaccine platforms during early 2020. The initial focus of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines was on preventing symptomatic, often severe illness. On 10 January 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequence data was shared through GISAID, and by 19 March, the global pharmaceutical industry announced a major commitment to address COVID-19. The COVID‑19 vaccines are widely credited for their role in reducing the spread, severity, and death caused by COVID-19. (Full article...)

Drug research

COVID-19 drug development is the research process to develop preventative therapeutic prescription drugs that would alleviate the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). From early 2020 through 2021, several hundred drug companies, biotechnology firms, university research groups, and health organizations were developing therapeutic candidates for COVID-19 disease in various stages of preclinical or clinical research (506 total candidates in April 2021), with 419 potential COVID-19 drugs in clinical trials, as of April 2021. (Full article...)

Images

• 

  Scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 (centre, yellow)

• 

  This image reveals ultra-structural morphology exhibited by the virus

• 

  SARS-CoV-2 structure

(More images...)

Topics

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Get involved!

Get involved by joining WikiProject COVID-19. We discuss collaborations and all manner of issues on our talk page. As of 20 October 2021, there are 2,087 articles within the project's scope. A full list is available here.

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