From Quarantine to Self-Isolation: Your One-Stop Glossary Guide to Coronavirus

The coronavirus has hit over 200 countries and infected close to 6 lakh people. Within less than two months, the whole world has been under the effect of Covid-19, forcing nations to shut down their international borders and enforce lockdowns.

You might have come across a number of new terms in the last few weeks such as quarantine, pandemic, epicentre, self-isolation and a lot others. While we might hear these every day, not everyone knows what they mean.

Coronavirus: CoroCoro

Novel Coronavirus: SARS-Cov-2 or novel Coronavirus, as it commonly known, is a single-stranded RNA virus. It is the cause of ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It was previously known as 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV.

COVID-19: The respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is known as COVID-19, or Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Community spread (community transmission): When people are infected without any knowledge of being in contact with someone who has the disease. This is also known as the Stage-3 of the coronavirus transmission.

Contact tracing: A process where everyone who came in contact with an infected person is identified and isolated.

Containment: It means limiting the spread of an illness. Since there is no vaccine for prevention or treatment of novel coronavirus as of now, containment is the best option available.

Epidemic: An outbreak of a disease within a community or a region.

Pandemic: A disease outbreak that has been spread to a larger population, including countries and continents.

Flattening the curve: Refers to the statistical chart used to show the number of cases. Stands for the strategies implemented to reduce the number of infections.

Incubation period: The time taken between getting infected and showing the symptoms.

Isolation: Separation of infected people or those who have the possibility of having an infection, from the healthy.

Quarantine: Separating and restricting the movement of an infected person to break the chain of transmission.

Social distancing: Maintaining a minimum distance with other people to ensure that there is no viral transmission through touch or aerosols.