A crowd-sourced guide to staying safe in Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

Coronaviruses refer to the family of viruses that are known to cause respiratory infections in both animals and humans. There are seven coronaviruses that are currently known to affect humans, out of which four are commonly found across the globe and cause mild cold like symptoms only. The remaining three are known to cause severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS caused by MERS-CoV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome caused by SARS-CoV and finally Coronavirus Disease 2019 caused by SARS-CoV-2.

​SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that has never been previously identified in humans. It is zoonotic in nature, which means it can be transmitted from animal to human, and human to human interactions. It was first reported from Wuhan City on 31 December 2019 in China. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea.

Around 80% of the infected show only mild symptoms and recover with standard medical attention. Older people and those with an underlying or previous medical condition develop serious symptoms and without medical intervention can prove fatal. Around 14% of the infected become seriously ill and 5% critical as per the studies.

The virus has affected more than 400,000 globally and has caused more than 22,000 deaths. WHO has given the status of Very High Risk at the Global Level.

This guide is still a Work In Progress. Until some sections are complete we will be providing the official links for reference. You have to follow those instructions until the guide gets updated.

Translations

This guide is currently being translated into Regional languages, check the respective guides for localized content.

Why does this guide exist ?

This guide is intended as a hub to collect information regarding preventive measures, information about the virus strain and official resources. These instructions are compiled from a variety of official sources.

COVID-19 is caused by a novel corona virus, which means there isn't that much amount of information and public awareness about it. Most of the information is spread across a lot of independent governmental and non-governmental websites. There is also a lot of fake news and incorrect information circulating on Social Media about COVID-19 many of them life threatening.

This guide aggregates all that information into a single hub and distills into a user friendly format. This guide is also localized into many regional and national languages for a wider audience. We are always looking for contributors, you can help out here.