Al-Nahrain Journal of Science

Background:World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). This review presents the geographical distribution of COVID-19 as of 31stMay 2020, the virus pathogenesis, the evolution of total confirmed cases and global death toll of COVID-19 from 31st December 2019 to 31stMay 2020 on the 5 continents and to display the immunological basis of the disease. Methods:Literatures were found by searching online databases. The evolution of total confirmed cases and total confirmed deaths, every two weeks, were plotted using GraphPad Prism 5.1 software.Results:As of 31stMay 2020 at 10:00 am, WHO reported 218 countries and territories concerned by COVID-19 on the 5 continents, with 5934936 total confirmed cases and 367166 total deaths. SARS-CoV-2 has a spherical shape with some pleomorphism. The infection pathogenesis significantly depends on the binding between spike protein and its receptor (ACE2 principally). Clinical manifestations of the disease vary according to host immunity and range from mild to fulminant.The main mechanism for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the “cytokine storm”.The virus employs many strategies to evade the immune response.Conclusion:COVID-19 has wreaked a lot of havoc. Investigations are still ongoing for the development of treatment and vaccines. In the meantime, measures are being taken to prevent and limit contacts.

This study determined the impact of COVID-19 among frozen meat business operators in the Tamale metropolis, Ghana. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 65 frozen meat business operators/respondents. The results showed that, most ofthe respondents had secondary education (50.8%), engaged in the business on full time (84.6%) and started it with their own capital (96.9%).COVID-19 had a negative impact on respondents (73.8%), most importantly low sales (64.6%). This was due to financial challenges of clients/customers (43.1%) and close-down of the hospitality industry (20.0%). Three of the respondents laid off workers due to COVID-19. Some (24.6%) of therespondents were not prepared for COVID-19 because they least expected it will cause such crises. Their businesses will collapse (44.6%) or they will close down their business themselves (43.1%) if lockdown due to COVID-19 lasts for more than 5 months. The respondents suggested the reduction of tax at the harbour (69.2%) as a potential means of assisting them during COVID-19 and massive reduction in the price of meat (41.3%) as a means of assisting their business post COVID-19. The study concludes that COVID-19 had negative effect on frozen meat operators in Tamale, Ghana.