Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China. While the outbreak in China is almost over, this highly contagious disease is currently spreading across the world with a daily increase in the number of affected countries, confirmed cases, and infection-related deaths. In January, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of COVID-19 constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Based on the high levels of global spread and the severity of COVID-19, on 11 March 2020, the Director-General of the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. COVID-19 is an acute respiratory disease caused by a newly emerged zoonotic coronavirus. A positive-sense enveloped single-stranded RNA virus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been isolated from a patient with pneumonia and connected to the cluster of acute respiratory illness cases from Wuhan. The virus is transmitted from human to human via droplets coughed or exhaled by infected persons and by touching droplet-contaminated surfaces or objects and then touching the eyes, nose, or mouth. Population groups that have been more frequently reported as having severe disease and a higher mortality rate include people aged over 60 years, males, people with underlying conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer. Current estimates suggest a median incubation period of five to six days for COVID-19, with a range of one to 14 days. Disease-specific pharmaceuticals and vaccines are still under research and development. The therapeutic use of convalescent plasma donated by patients recovered from COVID-19 might play a role in the efforts to find a possible treatment for COVID-19. Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, WHO, SARS-Cov-2, Zoonotic.