As of today, the month of April has seen the highest and biggest ever daily surge for COVID-19 patients! The worldwide tally has crossed the 130 million mark with 1,03,558 fresh covid cases in India today.
With 554,296 deaths and over 30 million confirmed cases, the United States tops twenty countries with the highest recorded infections and deaths in the world. That is undoubtedly an alarming situation to be handled by all of us together.
Hey, wait, here is what U.S says for next wave!
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Before you step out of home, here are some of the useful facts about COVID 19 that you must keep in mind. As it is rightly said that prevention is better than cure, why not apply it in a situation that is forcing humankind to fight for survival!
COVID-19 facts that might surprise you!
Now, it has been more than 15 months that we all are struggling to get across the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which drastically caused an outbreak of respiratory disease COVID-19 as started as pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Since then, it has never gone below our expected guesses and spread around the world like a fire in a jungle!
Check out the current statistics here-
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To date, it has infected not less than 128 million people globally. With no fully validated vaccination and medical assistance known to date, the disease continues to create more fear in the current context. We all are learning more every day. Find out what doctors are saying about the deadly SARS-CoV-2 and the drastically changed strain, which causes to have different symptoms for humans.
#1 Anosmia (loss of smell) is an easy symptom to catch!
Believe it or not, loss of smell is the most common COVID-19 symptom, which includes cough, fever, and shortness of breath. But now, as the disease has alarmingly spread worldwide, healthcare providers, including the doctors, have noticed a few unusual symptoms, including loss of smell and decreased sense of taste, which is also known as ageusia.
Let’s talk about real-life experiences. In South Korea, 30% of the people who evidently tested positive for the virus said that they faced the loss of smell and, indeed, was the first symptom for COVID-19. On the other hand, in Germany, more than 2 out of a total of three confirmed patients included loss of taste and smell.
In this light, doctors have recommended that anyone who experiences a sudden loss of taste and smell should self-isolate and actively contact their family doctors to understand the situation better.
#2 SARS-CoV-2 binds tightly to human cells.
Yes, it is not new! SARS, in 2003 was also known for causing the severe acute respiratory syndrome. It got spread from Asia throughout the world. Indeed, it was too global!
The syndrome sickened more than 8000 people and killed around 700 over a span of just six months. The virus that caused SARS (SARS-CoV) is just similar to the one which caused COVID-19. Both are the same type belonging to the group- coronavirus. But, now researchers have recently found out that there is an essential difference between the two!
Why is the new coronavirus so hard to stop? It is because SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is capable of binding 10 to 20 times more tightly to human cells than SARS-CoV (the virus responsible for SARS). Woah, that’s scary!
#3 Coronavirus can sicken babies more!
In the most general case, as compared to adults, children are more prone to catch a disease. And in this situation, children are more prone to catch coronavirus and turn to be more ill than adults. It is found out that from the open records of 2,143 Chinese children, around 11% of sick infants turned out to be sicker or critically ill.
In the United States, right from February 12 to April 2, less than 2% of cases were found in children who were younger than 18 years of age.
Why so?
There is a term called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS). It is indeed affecting some children positive for coronavirus. MIS is extremely rare and thus, turns out to be very serious. It is characterized by gastrointestinal symptoms and also cardiac inflammation.
#4 The Covid-19 virus can live and survive on surfaces for days!
The virus is spread normally through respiratory droplets. When an infected person coughs or sneezes, the virus can travel actively from one person to another. It can be direct or through some intermediate channel.
Researchers and medical practitioners have found out that the virus can actively live up to 24 hours on cardboard. Not only that, but it can also survive for 2 to 3 days on stainless steel and plastic material.
In a Nutshell
Vaccination for coronavirus is 100% effective but still needs to be studied for further usage to all age groups. Contextually, to be safe from the virus, you must follow the government laid down rules for social distancing and mask usage in all public places. With the growing numbers each day, let’s fight to defeat the menace created by a virus to better humankind!