A rapid review of recent advances in diagnosis, treatment and vaccination for COVID-19

COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, which originated in Wuhan, Hubei province, Central China, in December 2019 and since then has spread rapidly, resulting in a severe pandemic. The infected patient presents with varying non-specific symptoms requiring an accurate and rapid diagnostic tool to detect SARS-CoV-2. This is followed by effective patient isolation and early treatment initiation ranging from supportive therapy to specific drugs such as corticosteroids, antiviral agents, antibiotics, and the recently introduced convalescent plasma. The development of an efficient vaccine has been an on-going challenge by various nations and research companies. A literature search was conducted in early December 2020 in all the major databases such as Medline/PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar search engines. The findings are discussed in three main thematic areas namely diagnostic approaches, therapeutic options, and potential vaccines in various phases of development. Therefore, an effective and economical vaccine remains the only retort to combat COVID-19 successfully to save millions of lives during this pandemic. However, there is a great scope for further research in discovering cost-effective and safer therapeutics, vaccines and strategies to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 prevention and treatment services.