Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Emergence, early infection rate, and deployment strategies for preventive solutions

Novel coronavirus commonly known as coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread worldwide and triggered the current global health crisis. It mostly affects humans through the zoonotic transmission of coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This chapter focuses on the various epidemics and pandemics (plague, cholera, Spanish flu, etc.) in the history of human civilization, principal component analysis (PCA) for the interpretation of COVID-19 spreading kinetics during the first wave (in the year 2020), the potential use of herbal medicines, dietary remedies, and allopathic therapy to fight COVID-19, and various preventive measures undertaken to combat the pandemic during the first wave. The numbers of confirmed, recovered, active, and deceased cases is considered for the mapping of PCA within different countries. This study can be used as an informative approach for anticipating and strategy-making against COVID-19 or some other pandemics in the ensuing times.