Outbreak

Since December 2019, an increasing number of new pneumonia cases appeared in Wuhan, China.

The etiology of these infectious has been reported to be a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), 2 and the disease was named as COVID-19 by World Health Organization (WHO) on Feb 11, 2020. Since then, the virus (2019-nCoV) has rapidly spread across China and to at least 200 countries and territories, including United States of America, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and India. By 30^th March, more than 775,540 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 37,000 deaths have been reported across globe.

The current COVID-19 is the third epidemic caused by coronavirus in the 21st century, but current number of COVID-19 infected cases have already surpassed the previous two diseases: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

Outbreak in India

The country reported its first three cases in Kerala, all of whom were students who had returned from Wuhan, China. The transmission escalated in the month of March, after several cases were reported all over the country, most of which were linked to people with a travel history to affected countries. On 10^th March, the total number of cases reached 50. On 12 March, a 76-year-old man who had returned from Saudi Arabia became the first victim of the virus in the country. The total cases reached 100 on 15 March and 250 on 20 March.