The World Health Organisation declared coronavirus as a Pandemic today. But, what is a Pandemic? And, how does it differ from an Epidemic?
Two and a half months after coronavirus hit the Wuhan province of China, it has been officially declared a Pandemic by WHO. The word ‘Pandemic’ means the outbreak of a disease beyond containment measures in multiple countries at the same time. It is far more widespread than an ‘Epidemic’, which means the outbreak of a disease through one or more communities. When an epidemic turns global, it is referred to as a ‘Pandemic’. The last official ‘Pandemic’ was H1N1 or Swine Flu, in 2009.
The reasons behind coronavirus being declared a ‘Pandemic’ is its global outbreak and contagiousness. The total number of recorded coronavirus cases in the world is 1,28,883, out of which 4,729 people have died and 68,654 have recovered. China, the epicenter of the virus, has seen the highest number of cases – 80,796. Italy is next in the line, with a total of 12,462 coronavirus cases, followed by Iran, with a total number of 10,075 cases. The US has recorded a total of 1,000 cases. In India, a total number of around 81 people have been tested positive for the virus.
China, being the epicenter has also seen the most number of deaths due to the virus – 3,169. And Italy and Iran have again followed China in this list, with 827 and 429 deaths respectively. The US has seen 38 deaths while in India, only one death has been reported.
Experts have cited that the virus is curable and has a meager mortality rate of 3.4%. The contagiousness of the virus is scientifically characteristic of the fact that the virus has very low mortality rate. Proper isolation for minimum fourteen days and adequate precaution has helped a lot of patients recover from the virus.