Features of the development of the COVID-19 pandemic

Relevance. At the end of 2019, an outbreak of a new coronavirus infection occurred in the People's Republic of China with an epicenter in Wuhan. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization assigned the infection its official name -COVID-19 («Coronavirus disease 2019»), and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses on February 11, 2020 assigned the official name to the causative agent - SARS-CoV-2. The study is relevant due to the fact that the disease quickly spread around the planet with the active drift of the pathogen into the territory of the Russian Federation. As of 11/26/2020, worldwide 60 million 894 thousand people were infected with COVID-19, 1 million 430 thousand died, 42 million 90 thousand people recovered.Intention. Analysis of publications on the epidemiological spread of COVID-19 for the purpose of effective medical and psychological support during dynamic monitoring of the disease, and also for epidemiological well-being.Methodology. Scientific publications from domestic and foreign databases were analyzed.Results and Discussion. The global and rapid spread of COVID-19 disease has had a huge impact on all healthcare sectors around the world and has expanded the existing understanding of the nature of the course of this disease, and greatly facilitated the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of new coronavirus infection. The paper discusses the main issues of epidemiology, laboratory diagnostics and prevention of COVID-19, which are currently relevant. In the future, the massive use of vaccines against the new coronavirus will help create population immunity and protect the population from this disease, but today the issue has not yet been resolved, although it should be resolved in the near future.Conclusion. The issues of epidemiology and laboratory diagnostics of COVID-19 have not yet been finally resolved. The measures taken in Russia to prevent the import of HV are undoubtedly important and adequate to the current situation. At the same time, they cannot completely prevent cases of virus spreading (by those in the incubation period of COVID-19, or those with latent and hidden disease), which can lead to probable epidemiological problems in the future.