FEBRUARY 16-29, 2020 | COVID-19 - CORONAVIRUS PANIC

More than a month after the first case was reported from China, there is little the world knows about the new coronavirus. What’s certain is that the virus is highly contagious. Is the world ready to face a pandemic?

- BANJOT KAUR AND ALOK GUPTA

A PANDEMIC is an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people,” says a World Health Organization (who) bulletin. covid-19 has already spread to 27 countries and infected over 40,000 people. The past four pandemics were caused by the influenza (flu) virus, therefore the medical discourse has so far been only on flu pandemics. For the past two years, who has been listing pandemic as an important health challenge. “A pandemic of a new, highly infectious, airborne virus— most likely a strain of influenza—to which most people lack immunity, is inevitable. It is not a matter of “if” another pandemic will strike, but “when” it will strike,” who said this year.