Abstract

Globally, corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome Corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the biggest and devastating public health challenge of the century. With a current tally of about 761 million of caseload with death count of around 6.8 million, the pandemic of COVID-19 had ravaged the mankind in last three years. The comprehensive understanding of the causes, the mechanisms, and the pathology of COVID-19 are still insufficient. The development of new drugs and therapeutic strategies for COVID-19 is still underway. Vaccines had been developed and are considered as the crucial weapon to counter with. However, the virus has been continued to mutate yielding various strains causing formidable counts of breakthrough and reinfection cases. This implies the importance of additional health metrics like timely detection and treatment to prevent transmission. SARS-CoV-2 rapid evolution threatens vaccine- and natural infection-derived immunity. Thousands of mutations have occurred in the SARS-CoV-2 genome as the pandemic has proceeded. Understanding the importance of mutations in spike proteins, particularly those of relevance for antiviral immunity, is important to allocating preparedness efforts. This review summarizes the comprehensive information of SARS-CoV-2 variants, pathogenesis, diagnostics, prognostics and management. Further we discussed recent progress on the conventional therapeutics strategies and challenges in COVID-19 management. Conclusively, the present review encompasses the COVID-19 related information and emphasizes the need for early prevention and clinical management.