COVID-19: A Centennial Pandemic from Origin to Clinical Trials

In December 2019, an unexpected interaction of coronavirus with human’s occurred for the third time in history after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012. Soon the virus was confirmed as SARS-CoV-2, and the severity of its transmission lead the World Health Organization to declare it as World Pandemic. Due to its highly contagious nature, new methods like social distancing, self-hygiene and quarantine were being adopted by many countries to halt the transmission. Due to the dearth in specific therapeutics and/or vaccines against Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), a significant thrust in drugs and vaccine discovery was ratified by all the nations. The current review comprehensively details about the emergence and molecular pathogenesis with an interesting timeline which notes all the major events during this crisis. Given the potential general readers and health workers, the symptoms and diagnostic approaches were simplified. Emphasis was given to therapeutic approaches and clinical trials section to support the translational research and to cope up with the viral outbreak.