Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection
Personal Protective Measures during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany
The first case of COVID-19 in Germany was reported on January 27, 2020 (Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care, 2020). The virus SARS-CoV-2 spreads fast, and within the first two months, more than 42,000 cases had been notified (Robert Koch Institute, 2021). Containment of the virus was not only complicated by the fact that it was found to be contagious even before the onset of symptoms but also because some individuals can live through an infection without showing any symptoms and still infect others (Almadhi et al., 2021; Buitrago-Garcia et al., 2020).Candesartan as a tentative treatment for COVID-19: A prospective non-randomized open-label study
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global public health emergency (World Health Organization, 2021). Hundreds of millions of people have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) at the time of writing. Although most patients with COVID-19 are asymptomatic or experience only mild influenza-like illness (Day, 2020), a significant proportion may develop severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multi-organ failure (MOF) and death (Lim et al., 2020).The initial impact of a national BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine rollout
A two-dose regimen of BNT162b2, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, was shown to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 by around 95% in a randomized clinical trial and in a mass national vaccination program (Dagan et al., 2021; Polack et al., 2020). On 23 December 2020, Qatar started a national BNT162b2 rollout programme, in addition to existing COVID-19 public health control measures. The rollout initially prioritised healthcare workers, individuals aged ≥50 years, and those with chronic or immunosuppressive medical conditions.Main differences between the first and second waves of COVID-19 in Madrid, Spain
The emergence and rapid global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), from Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 represented an unprecedented phenomenon in medicine. COVID-19 continues to challenge health services and disrupt social and economic activities globally. In Spain, the first wave commenced in mid-March 2020 and lasted for 3 months. It finally abated due to strict lockdown and home confinement. Following relaxation of measures during the summer, a second wave commenced in mid-September 2020 and extended until Christmas 2020.Infection sustained by lineage B.1.1.7 of SARS-CoV-2 is characterised by longer persistence and higher viral RNA loads in nasopharyngeal swabs
Starting from March 2020, nasopharyngeal swabs collected in three provinces (Chieti, L’Aquila and Teramo) of Abruzzo, a central Region of Italy, were tested daily for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZSAM) (Danzetta et al., 2020).Risk and predictive factors of prolonged viral RNA shedding in upper respiratory specimens in a large cohort of COVID-19 patients admitted to an Italian reference hospital
The emergence and rapid spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has become a global health emergency and one of our century's greatest challenges. As of February 24, 2021, approximately 111 million confirmed cases and more than 2.4 million deaths had been reported worldwide (Anon, 2020).Temporal profile of SARS-CoV-2 viral load in posterior nasopharyngeal samples: Analysis of 944 patients in Apulia, Italy
From early 2020 a new Coronavirus disease named COVID-19 has spread worldwide with Italy being one of the most affected countries, albeit with substantial regional differences (IstitutoSuperiorediSanità; WHO). In the Apulia region (southern Italy) approximately 7900 cases of COVID-19 infection have been reported so far, with a peak at the end of April and a substantial decrease from May-June. The rate of hospitalization and number of severe cases also fell during this time (IstitutoSuperiorediSanità).No clinical benefit in mortality associated with hydroxychloroquine treatment in patients with COVID-19
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. As of June 22, 2020, a total of 2,275,645 COVID-19 cases and 119,923 related deaths had been reported in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Reports from around the world indicate that this disease will continue to spread with the potential to cause severe illness in 10%–20% of those infected and to lead to hospitalization, ICU admission, ventilator support, and death.Possible aerosol transmission of COVID-19 associated with an outbreak in an apartment in Seoul, South Korea, 2020
The possibility of aerosol transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains controversial. An aerosol is defined as a suspension of particles of <5 μm in the air (or in a gas), which is small enough to reach the respiratory bronchioles and alveoli (Wilson et al., 2020). The WHO merely acknowledged that aerosol transmission might be another transmission route for SARS-CoV-2 without further response, and international and governmental guidelines retain the rule of 2 m of social distance based on droplet transmission (Morawska and Milton, 2020; Wilson et al., 2020).A high-throughput drug screening strategy against coronaviruses
The emergence and re-emergence of coronavirus (CoV) infections have continually caused serious public health concerns over past decades. Severe acute CoV infections, including severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2002, Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012, and the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2, have become a growing and long-lasting global threat (Gao, 2018). The first case of SARS-CoV-2 was deemed to occur in December 2019 and identified as a new type of coronavirus in early January 2020 (Burki, 2020; Chen et al., 2020a; Gralinski and Menachery, 2020; Wu et al., 2020b; Zhou et al., 2020b).Efficacy and safety of favipiravir, an oral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inhibitor, in mild-to-moderate COVID-19: A randomized, comparative, open-label, multicenter, phase 3 clinical trial
A novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; SARS-CoV-2), emerged in late December 2019, which resulted in the ongoing worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020; Zhou et al., 2020 Zhou et al., 2020). As of September 25, 2020, the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 global dashboard reports 32,390,204 confirmed cases and 985,302 deaths worldwide attributed to SARS-CoV-2 (The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, 2020).Could SARS-CoV-2-induced lung injury be attenuated by vitamin D?
A novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2) had caused 4,761,559 confirmed cases and 317,529 confirmed deaths worldwide, as of May 20, 2020 ( https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 ). Many of the symptoms caused by SARS-CoV-2 are similar to those caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), especially acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (Li et al., 2020a). Previous studies have reported that ARDS is the primary cause of mortality and morbidity in intensive care units (ICUs) (Liu and Tan, 2020; Liu et al., 2020a, b).Timing of national lockdown and mortality in COVID-19: The Italian experience
On February 20, 2020, a 30-year-old patient admitted to the intensive care unit in Codogno Hospital (Lombardy, Italy) tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel beta-coronavirus that causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). During the next 24 h, the number of reported positive cases increased to 36 (Sebastiani et al., 2020; Grasselli et al., 2020).A case report of newborn infant with severe COVID-19 in Mexico: Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in human breast milk and stool
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global public health threat (Wang et al., 2020). The dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs from human-to-human through respiratory droplets (Li et al., 2020); however, other routes of transmission have not been fully characterized.Nocturnal oxygen therapy as an option for early COVID-19
The coronavirus (COVID-19) has rapidly spread and swept across most countries worldwide since the first case was detected. There is currently no effective antiviral therapy or immune-based treatment for COVID-19, especially for asymptomatic or mild patients who are recommended to self-care under home quarantine. However, severe cases rapidly increase in their progression from mild cases one week after onset and can develop into respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) on the basis of pneumonia (Wang et al., 2020a).Evaluation of a novel antigen-based rapid detection test for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory samples
Since the first reported cases in December 2019, the rapidly emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has been causing tremendous public health challenges worldwide (WHO, 2020a). Timely detection and isolation of cases and their contacts are considered crucial to help curtail this unprecedented pandemic (Nguyen et al., 2020). This strategy relies on robust, rapid, and easy-to-perform diagnostic tools that can be used to test large numbers of samples in a short period of time.Could the D614G substitution in the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein be associated with higher COVID-19 mortality?
The increasing number of deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic has raised serious global concerns. Increased testing capacity and ample intensive care availability could explain lower mortality in some countries compared to others. Nevertheless, it is also plausible that the SARS-CoV-2 mutations giving rise to different phylogenetic clades are responsible for the apparent death rate disparities around the world. Current research literature linking the genetic make-up of SARS-CoV-2 with fatalities is lacking.From SARS to COVID-19: What we have learned about children infected with COVID-19
A cluster of patients presented with pneumonia caused by an unknown pathogen that was linked to the seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Subsequently, a new coronavirus was identified by sequencing the whole genome of patient samples (Zhu et al., 2020a). It was named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by the Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (Gorbalenya et al., 2020), and the disease caused by the virus was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO).Potential fecal transmission of SARS-CoV-2: Current evidence and implications for public health
The current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in Hubei Province, China in December 2019 and spread rapidly to over 165 countries in approximately 3 months (Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, 2020; Shanmugaraj et al., 2020). The primary routes of transmission of the causative virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), are through respiratory droplets and close person-to-person contact, but knowledge about other potential modes of transmission, e.g., fomite-based, vertical, and fecal–oral transmission, remains relatively sparse (Cai et al., 2020a; Chen et al., 2020a; Ghinai et al., 2020; Gu et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020; van Doremalen et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020b; Xiao et al., 2020; Yeo et al., 2020).Association of the COVID-19 pandemic with Internet Search Volumes: A Google TrendsTM Analysis
A novel coronavirus, the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causes a new disease named Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). It was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan (Hubei, China)(Wang et al., 2020). Due to a high virulence and a high proportion of asymptomatic cases, the outbreak spreads all over the world. On April 5th 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 1 133 758 confirmed cases. Today, a cumulative mortality rate of 5.5% (62 784) has been reported.The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak: What we know
Coronaviruses (CoVs), a large family of single-stranded RNA viruses, can infect animals and also humans, causing respiratory, gastrointestinal, hepatic, and neurologic diseases (Weiss and Leibowitz, 2013). As the largest known RNA viruses, CoVs are further divided into four genera: alpha-coronavirus, beta- coronavirus, gamma-coronavirus and delta-coronavirus (Yang and Leibowitz, 2015). To date, there have been six human coronaviruses (HCoVs) identified, including the alpha-CoVs HCoVs-NL63 and HCoVs-229E and the beta-CoVs HCoVs-OC43, HCoVs-HKU1, severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV (SARS-CoV) (Drosten et al., 2020), and Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV (MERS-CoV) (Zaki et al., 2012).
