The ongoing respiratory disease pandemic COVID-19 caused by a newly emerging highly infectious virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is aggravating the world's health, economy and regular life. This unprecedented respiratory outbreak has already infected more than 43 million individuals and taken more than 1.1 million lives. The habitation of over 21% of the world's population- the SAARC region is also susceptible to COVID-19 and comprises of more than 20% of the total infected cases. Demographic analysis showed that males and younger populations are mostly infected in South Asian countries. Similar genomic variations were observed in the countries such as variations in the ORF1ab, ORF1a, ORF3a and S genes were largely seen. As no effective treatment strategy hasn’t developed yet, only timely testing and tracing can mitigate the loss from the disease which led the way to the development of alternate screening methods with higher efficiency and timely results. Since no unanimously recognized treatment option is available, existing medicines and treatments are being utilized to treat the patients. Currently, a vaccine can be the ideal solution for this rapidly evolving disease and hence two South Asian country- Bangladesh and India has joined the race of vaccine development and one of them succeeded the phase II clinical trial. As the ‘Second Wave of COVID-19’ is approaching, it has become a matter of urgency to appraise the existing policies and strategies in order to ascertain and implement effective schemes that can mitigate the ramifications of the disease.

Background: The ongoing acute respiratory disease pandemic termed COVID-19 caused by a newly emerged coronavirus has jeopardized the world’s health and economic sectors. As of July 20, 2020, the virus now known as SARS-CoV-2 has already infected more than 14 million individuals and killed 612,815 patients with a mortality rate of 4.12% around the world regardless of age, gender and race. Main body: Bangladesh has become one of its worst sufferers, with 207,453 infected people and 2,668 related deaths with a mortality rate of 1.29% until July 20, 2020. More than 50% of COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh are aged between 21 and 40 but elderly people aged more than 60 have the highest mortality rate (44.7%). Male individuals are also more susceptible to the virus than females and consist of 71% and 79% among the infected and deceased patients respectively. The most prevalent clinical features following the virus incubation period are fever, fatigue and dry cough. A phylogenetic analysis study elucidated that the virus strain found in the country has 9 single-nucleotide variants, mostly in the ORF1ab gene, and a sequence containing 3 successive variants in the N protein, which reflects a weaker strain of SARS-CoV-2, implicating a possibility of its lower mortality rate. Another investigation of 184 genome samples of SARS-CoV-2 across the country implicated a close homology with a European haplotype of SARS-CoV-2. The country has also joined the race of vaccine development and started phase-III clinical trials of a candidate vaccine developed by Sinovac Research and Development Co Ltd, China. Conclusion: Bangladesh, as a developing country, still struggles with the pandemic and needs to scale up its response operation and improve health care facilities such as testing capacity, institutional quarantine and isolation centers and promote awareness. Preventive measures such as strict lockdown, social distancing and boosting the existing immune system are thus considered the only contrivances.