All You Need to Know About COVID-19 in 5 Minutes

What Does COVID-19 Means?

COVID-19 simply means:

• COVI - Coronavirus
• D - Disease
• 19 - 2019, Year of first case

Timeline Of COVID-19

• 31 Dec 2019
  Cases of pneumonia from an unknown causes were identified in Wuhan, China
• 7 Jan 2020
  The outbreak was confirmed to be caused by a new strain of coronavirus
• 11 Jan 2020
  First reported coronavirus death in Wuhan, China
• 30 Jan 2020
  World Health Organisation declared the outbreak as a global public health emergency
• 11 Feb 2020
  World Health Organisation officially named the disease 'COVID-19'
• 11 Mar 2020
  World Health Organisation announced that COVID-19 has become a pandemic disease

• 13 Mar 2020
  Europe became the new epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic
  

READ MORE: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ON PHYSICAL DISTANCING

What Are The Symptoms of COVID-19?

Some COVID-19 symptoms includes:

• Fever
• Cough
• Fatigue
• Breathing Difficulties 

In severe cases, a person infected with the COVID-19 virus could develop Pneumonia, Respiratory Failure, Kidney Failure or Death.

How is COVID-19 Transmitted?

Respiratory Droplets
When an infected person cough or sneezes, respiratory droplets carrying the virus are released and transmitted if:

	People breath in the respiratory droplets carrying the virus
	People touch surfaces with such droplets before touching their eyes, nose or mouth

READ MORE: DEBUNKING MYTHS ON COVID-19

Recent studies by Singapore NCID and DSO Laboratories revealed that:

	Infected patient contaminate their surrounding not only through respiratory droplets but faecal shedding as well
	Transmission can take place through droplets carried in the air and deposited on air vents

Is There a Treatment?

To date, there is no licensed vaccines for COVID-19, even as a number of therapeutics are undergoing clinical trials in China and Seattle with more than 20 vaccine and medicines in development. Infected patients should be hospitalised if serious or given treatment to relieve symptoms.