How much you know about the impact of coronavirus on the world
Introduction:
Though not new to history, the current human generation has
seen what a pandemic can do...if we are careless and reckless and ignore the
balance of Nature.
A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has
spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide,
affecting a substantial number of individuals. (1)
Origin and Symptoms and
Basic Precautions:
The coronavirus (COVID-19) or severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that started in Wuhan City of China in
December 2019 has spread rapidly to almost every country alarming WHO to declare
as pandemic on March 11, 2020. It is
transmitted from bats to humans causing symptoms in an infected person of
non-productive cough, sneeze, fever, fatigue, breathlessness with a fatality
rate up to 2-3% detected through RT-PCR test.
Treatment: Self-care: Use triple layer medical mask or N95 mask;
maintain social distance of 3-5 meters, use sanitizer, drink hot water
regularly (3-5 times per day) and take hot liquids and solids, isolate yourself
in a well-ventilated room if needed, frequent soap wash, monitor temperature
and oxygen levels if needed, take physician advise as needed.
Business: (2)
Lot of disruption happened in all business fields, positively
and negatively. Lot of automation
started to happen, online ecommerce, digitalization of business from offline,
work from home options helping employees to have office and personal life
balance, method of operating. Many businesses
had to change their future plans, reduce costs, staffing, take loans, exit or
diversify from certain businesses.
Leadership had a tough situation for all small, medium, and big businesses
dealing with customers, vendors, supply chains, raw material suppliers,
transportation, new technology adaptation, budget allocations, preparing
themselves and their employees to adapt for the changes keeping self-motivated
and to keep the team motivated. Money
transactions have increased towards digitalization which also helped increased
transparency. Online fraud and cybercrimes
have also increased drastically as many are technically illiterate to the
extent of digital skills needed. This
increased automation in various sectors like automobiles, construction,
robotics in almost every sector is going to create huge shortage of jobs in the
coming 5-10 years which is frightening that people are not alarmed about it and
are not preparing themselves to face the future situations. R and D and innovations in data science,
automation, healthcare, agriculture, space research, etc are developing at a
fast pace and people need to give it a thought to be learners and adapt to the
coming changing circumstances and advancements.
Cloud based technologies have reduced cost and speed of technical part
of technology. Clean technologies like
in electric cars, solar energy have got momentum which is good for nature and
reduce pollution. Along with men, mostly
woman got great opportunity with work from home options, part time, full time,
freeness in scheduling times of work, etc.
Socio-Economic
Implictions: (3)
The poor and weaker sections are the worst hit who live on
daily wages, and many jobs and businesses with low income have been lost
causing hopelessness and havoc in terms of finance and health. Those who migrated to other towns and cities
within and across the country have suffered a lot for basic facilities. There is not even enough data about how much
impact that had which is very disappointing to see them in such a
situation. Many lost jobs or got minimum
salaries and struggled to pay loans, EMIs, etc. and had to sell properties,
gold, etc. When healthcare issues are
there, the situation is even worse.
No source of money or reduced source due to lack of
agriculture, dairy farms, meat, fruits and vegetables, and many went into
poverty. People had to spend lot of
money on electronic gadgets due to online education and work from home and had
to pay extra money due to shortage of electronic goods due to sudden increase
in demand and supply chain bottlenecks.
Domestic violence and stress and anxiety levels have increased for
weaker sections. Even those who could
afford too, due to relationship issues, domestic life, quarrels have faced
physical, sexual, mental troubles, loneliness.
Many had a chance to spend some time with their families, relatives, and
friends. Women have to be appreciated as
they had extra burden and tough time as people are at homes and very few share
their work burden. They have to be
appreciated. All have got a chance to
see how hard the homemakers and marriage partners are working in office and at
home and share and express their feelings and thoughts. Need to give more focus on developing human
to human bonding, relationships, developing some extracurricular activities
like dance, sports, music, writing, acting, gardening, books, etc would help
people of all age groups to cope with the stress, anxiety, explore themselves,
develop coping mechanisms, and become successful by nurturing their unique
skills and capable to face challenges of their life.
Overall, COVID-19 has detrimental effect on global healthcare
systems with a ripple effect on every aspect of human life. People died in lakhs across the world in
several countries.
Agriculture:
Though there is demand due to panic buying, but due to
supply-chain disruption and reduced travel and increased preventive measures
due to COVID-19, there is a great impact on meat and vegetables. We have seen over and under supply of all
products and price fluctuations. Due to
increased health awareness, natural products without pesticides have increased
demand.
Oil and Petroleum:
Though global economics and OPEC interventions there is some
reduction in oil prices, due to different central and state policies, there is
a huge variation in prices of petroleum and oil products. Due to this, even when travelling and vehicular
movement reduced, there is steep increase in the prices.
Industrial Impact:
Pharmaceutical, electronics, automobiles having supply chains
in China and Asian countries have been impacted largely. Travel and hospitality industry has been
impacted greatly. All industries started
accepting work from home as much as possible and tried to digitalize their
services creating global village.
Education:
All levels of education system are impacted. Overall, students’ education is disrupted for
1-2 years. Online education system has
increased but it is limited to those who could afford basic electronic
equipment which is quite a small percentage of children. Online education which was not of much
importance has gained lot of trust and interest of people. Due to job losses and reduced income sources,
people found it challenging to pay the school fee. On the other hand, new stream of courses are
available at fraction of a cost and helped many to upskill and take up new
professions and new streams of income.
Traditional teachers and schools have faced financial issues.
Healthcare (Physical and
Mental):
The unpreparedness of governments to take care of its
citizens due to lack of healthcare infrastructure even like N95 masks, ICU
beds, oxygen cylinders, hospital expenses is quite evident during the COVID-19
pandemic situation. People witnessed
horrific situations where people are dying in front of their eyes. At the same time, demand for pharmaceuticals,
vaccines, medicines, medical equipments, masks, oxygen, etc has increased. Tele medicine and drones usage has increased
in this pandemic time to save time, safety, and speedy delivery of services
like food medicine. Many who are in need
of medical surgical treatment have been affected. Substance use and abuse, suicidal and
homicidal ideation is of concern in people, particularly young generation, in
various countries. Yoga, ayurvedic,
traditional methods of treatment, immunity and health consciousness, value of
maintaining relationship and taking care of mind, body, soul, and health has
increased. People got opportunity to
soul search and find out what is important in life and many changed their
professions in search of passion and what is important in life apart from money.
Hospitality, Tourism, and
Aviation:
People employed in hotel and travel industry are the most
affected due to the pandemic across the world.
While many governments tried to help and support these people, but many
countries are just helpless. Aviation is
also worst hit due to band on foreign travels by many countries. Governments had to come forward to bail out
and fund many airlines and airports.
Real Estate:
Due to lockdowns, there is a huge hit in real estate
sector. Those who could buy have bought
at properties at great bargain prices.
Some brokers showed potential buyers through online platforms and were
able to do business. Workers in this
sector are hit hard. Many citizens are
unable to pay housing loans and EMIs.
Sports Industry:
All the sports events have been postponed for 1-2 years in
all types of sports like tennis, cricket, football, Olympics, basketball,
cycling, etc. This sector too employees
a lot of people like administration, coaches, players, workers, staff,
financial institutes, etc, the loss would be definitely huge.
Entertainment:
This pandemic has great positive impact with respect to
online entertainment, sports, gaming, with the wide spread availability of
Internet at reasonable cost. Lot of things
have been available in the digital world which were imagined impossible few
years back. Lot of content in various
fields has been created which in turn created many influencers in various
fields like health, sports, business, arts, science, filming, photography,
video editing, etc.
Plants and Animals:
While wild life has got good chance to grow, domestic animals
like dogs, cattle, goats are hit hard for want of basic needs. It is saddening to see them being left
hopelessly as people do not have money to feed their family and relatives and
friends themselves. It shows the lack of
preparedness at governments level in terms of disaster management, where there
are governing bodies to take care of these situations but without any funds or
power.
For any info that you want to share with me,
please contact me at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandratdigital/
https://chandratdigital.medium.com/
references:
1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic
2.
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk-and-resilience/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business
3.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162753/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-you-know-impact-coronavirus-world-chandrasekhar-t
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