In February 2020, WHO officially named the novel coronavirus disease as the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and on March 11, proclaimed it a pandemic. The daily increasing number of cases infected with COVID-19 has distressed people and alarmed health authorities worldwide. While no prophylactic vaccine or effective drug for COVID 19 exists, the pandemic is mainly managed by avoidance strategies. We posit that two factors may have accelerated the propagation of the pandemic. First, undertaking unguided research may have negatively influenced the intervention measures against the pandemic. Second, noncompliance with timely in-house isolation of infected cases has undoubtedly worsened the pandemic. Successful management of the pandemic highly depends on the cumulative knowledge about the virus.

Physical/social distancing, handwashing, respiratory hygiene, and face-masking have been recommended as realistic counterstrategies to control the COVID-19 pandemic. These strategies have been critical in the fight against the present pandemic in many countries. Here, we detail the background to such countermeasures, present some examples in different settings, and finally emphasize that they should remain in place worldwide as a cultural and behavioral “new normal” until a vaccine or a decisive treatment for COVID-19 is developed and made available globally.