The world is battling the COVID-19 global health emergency, and its economic and social ramifications. It is also racing against the clock to avoid the environmental crisis around the corner. The pandemic has shown us the importance of being prepared when crisis hit. It has also shown us that postponing bold decisions can have huge costs. Most of the countries in the world were not prepared for the Covid-19 crisis. The health crisis has also brought to light the inequalities and fragility of our societies. At the beginning of the crisis, 40% of households in the developed countries were three months away from poverty. The situation in most developing countries is ever more dire. Children and vulnerable youth are the ones who often draw the shortest straw. Poverty and income inequality can limit severely the chance to emerge stronger in the post-COVID world.
Origin of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causing COVID-19, The first human cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19, subsequently named SARS-CoV-2 were first reported by officials in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019. Retrospective investigations by Chinese authorities have identified human cases with onset of symptoms in early December 2019. While several the earliest known cases had a link to a wholesale foodstuff in Wuhan, some failed to. Many of the initial patients were either stall owners, market employees, or regular visitors to the present market. Environmental samples taken from this market in December 2019 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, further suggesting that the market in Wuhan City was the source of this outbreak or played a task within the initial amplification of the outbreak. The market was closed on 1 January 2020. SARS-CoV-2 was identified in early January and its genetic sequence shared publicly on 11-12 January. The complete genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 from the first human cases and also the sequences of the many other virus isolated from human cases from China and every one over the globe since then show that SARS-CoV-2 has an ecological origin in bat populations. All available evidence thus far suggests that the virus includes a natural animal origin and is not a manipulated or constructed virus. Many researchers can study the genomic features of SARS-CoV-2 and have found that evidence does not support that SARS-CoV-2 may be a laboratory construct. If it were a constructed virus, its genomic sequence would show a combination of known elements. this can be not the case.
Another coronavirus, SARS-CoV-1, the reason behind the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, was also closely associated with other coronaviruses isolated from bats. These close genetic relations of SARS-CoV-1, SARSCoV-2 and other coronaviruses suggest that all of them have their ecological origin in bat populations. Many of those coronaviruses also can infect several animal species. for instance, SARS-CoV-1 infected civet cats and so humans, while the virus causing the center East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) is found in dromedary camels and has continued to infect humans since 2012.
All available evidence for COVID-19 suggests that SARS-CoV-2 includes a zoonotic source. Since there is usually limited close contact between humans and bats, it is more likely that transmission of the virus to humans happened through another animal species, one that is more likely to be handled by humans. This intermediate animal host or zoonotic source might be a brute, a wild animal, or a domesticated wild animal and yet has not been identified.
All the published genetic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 isolated from human cases are very similar. this implies that the beginning of the outbreak resulted from one-point introduction within the human population round the time that the virus was first reported in humans in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
A number of investigations to higher understand the source of the outbreak in China are currently underway or planned, including investigations of human cases with symptom onset in and around Wuhan in late 2019, environmental sampling from markets and farms in areas where the primary human cases were identified, and detailed records on the source and kind of wildlife species and farmed animals sold in these markets.
Results from these studies are essential to preventing further zoonotic introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into the human population. WHO continues to collaborate with animal health and human health experts, Member States, and other partners to spot gaps and research priorities for the control of COVID-19, including the eventual identification of the source of the virus in China.