The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created a global health crisis that has had a deep impact on the way we perceive our world and our everyday lives. Not only the rate of contagion and patterns of transmission threatens our sense of agency, but the safety measures put in place to contain the spread of the virus also require social distancing by refraining from doing what is inherently human, which is to find solace in the company of others.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus.
Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.
The best way to prevent and slow down transmission is be well informed about the COVID-19 virus, the disease it causes and how it spreads. Protect yourself and others from infection by washing your hands or using an alcohol based rub frequently and not touching your face.
The COVID-19 virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s important that you also practice respiratory etiquette (for example, by coughing into a flexed elbow).
At this time, there are no specific vaccines or treatments for COVID-19. However, there are many ongoing clinical trials evaluating potential treatments. WHO will continue to provide updated information as soon as clinical findings become available.
In December, while Wuhan province was witnessing the beginning of the actual Covid-19 pandemic, India was facing massive and violent uprisings. Hundreds of thousands of Indians protested all over the country against the discriminatory anti-Muslim citizenship law that had just been passed by its parliament—the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)—and as a backlash violent attacks occurred on universities and Muslim working-class neighbourhoods by armed vigilantes. All this while the authorities were negating the presence of community transmission of the virus despite the first cases appearing way back in January to finally declare a 21-day lockdown on the midnight of 24 March, with only a 4 hour notice. This announcement, as in France, has triggered migration from the cities to the countryside, but of a completely different nature: in India, the internal migrant workers, day labourers and the poor—deprived of resources—have decided to return to their native villages. This tragic and deadly exodus of migrants fleeing cities is the most visible stigmata of the profound health, economic and social crisis that this threefold essay offers to analyse.
Some say covid is round and spikiest of them all,
I also hear he is the deadliest of them all.
He is here, he is there,
Travelling time to time in the air.
Young, old or small,
He doesn’t care at all.
He has made the roads clear,
For now, he is our greatest fear.
The birds are free,
Chirping on the wonderful tree.
The whales are swimming, the deer, galloping,
Wondering where the humans are who tried to destroy us all.
But I do believe our faith in god,
Who is the mightiest of all,
Will help us conquer this fear once in for all,
I hope a wonderful better tomorrow is near for us all.
With the number of COVID-19 cases leaning dangerously more than 200,000 and the worldwide death toll crossing more than 8,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus outbreak a pandemic in the second week of March 2020, four months after the novel virus first made headlines.
Nearly 162 countries are steadily going into lockdown, and businesses across the globe are operating in fear of an impending collapse of global financial markets. This situation, clubbed with sluggish economic growth in the previous year, especially in a developing country like India, is leading to extremely volatile market conditions. Let’s understand how the coronavirus is impacting business and subsequent tax reforms in India.
It is unequivocal that this pandemic has led to a near total disruption of our social fabric. Global economics have been all but paralyzed. Under these circumstances, one can imagine the psychological toll is significant.
While there is no doubt that COVID-19 is causing significant stress, we won’t grasp the long-term mental health effects until we conduct future research. At the same time, and because of this pandemic, we see a positive impact on the way we consider mental health and how the healthcare system operates.
Removing barriers and improving access to care. Since the COVID pandemic, the mental health field has shifted almost completely to telehealth encounters with visits through video or phone. This shift, together with the response from insurers to expand payment for telehealth have resulted in better integration of care and improved access.
The worldwide disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in numerous impacts on the environment and the climate. The severe decline in planned travel has caused many regions to experience a drop in air pollution. In China, lockdowns and other measures resulted in a 25 per cent reduction in carbon emissions and 50 per cent reduction in nitrogen oxides emissions,which one Earth systems scientist estimated may have saved at least 77,000 lives over two months.However, the outbreak has also provided cover for illegal activities such as deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and poaching in Africa,hindered environmental diplomacy efforts,and created economic fallout that some predict will slow investment in green energy technologies.
Dear Covid 19 ,
Your arrival has created havoc in my technical world.
The roads are empty, with crowds too small,
And no trace of life outside, noone at all.
Every human is locked up in their house,
And the sunny play ground, now looks bleak.
Why does our wide world look so desolate now?
What a silly question, even a toddler would have the answer.
Cause, there’s a you out there,
Who can make even breathing like hell.
You are tinier than our cells, but are still causing a huge pandemic,
If you enter our body, you may wreak havoc.
Coughs or sneezes are like your private jets,
And to your lungs, you are a threat.
We, who always chat and dine in groups,
Now prefer to stay away,
And with a mask on our mouths,
Nobody’s going to school anymore,
No child playing in the park,
Nobody’s even opening the door,
Except for grocery or stock.
We used to giggle and play
On our swings and slide,
Now, we’re caged in our homes,
As you gambol outside.
We, who are social animals,
Now dread the door bell.
Sadly, we are told to see,
Every visitor as an unwelcome virus.
When can we really be free?
When can we stick our heads out?
When will the dawn arrive?
The four decades before your arrival were marked by vast technological changes. Cell phones and planes connected people across the world, banking and entertainment were merely a click away. But technology’s true potential to radically change the lives of the world’s poor – to be more than just entertainment or convenience – was unleashed in the aftermath of your arrival.
You stopped..
Just stopped everything
It is was no longer a request. You made it mandatory.
You brought the supersonic, high speed merry-go-round to a halt
You stopped the planes the trains the schools the malls the meetings the frenetic, furied rush of illusions and “obligations” that keep you from hearing the single and shared beating heart, of our mother earth
And now all of us are suffering.
Last year, the firestorms that scorched the lungs of the earth did not pause the world
Nor the typhoons in Africa, China, Japan.
Nor the fevered climates in Japan and India.
We haven’t been listening.
It is hard to listen when we were.so busy all the time, hustling to uphold the comforts and conveniences that scaffold your lives.
But the foundation is giving way,
buckling under the weight of our needs and desires.
Lockdown 1.0
Lockdown 2.0
Lockdown 3.0
Lockdown 4.0
Lockdown 5.0
You have brought firestorms to our body
You have brought fever to our bodies
You have brought the burning, searing, and flooding to your lungs.
We are not well.
The dirt of the world is washed away by the tsunami of your havoc.
You are not our enemy. You are the Messenger.
It’s time to move beyond our individual concerns and consider the concerns of all;
It’s time to look up into the sky, streaked with fewer planes, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, smoky, smoggy, rainy? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy?
To look at a tree, and see it, to notice its condition: how does its health contribute to the health of the sky, to the air you need to be healthy?
Many of us are afraid now.
But you have taught us a lesson for life time .
The health of a tree, a river, the sky tells me about the quality of my own health,
A last thank you and sorry
We will Stop.
Just stop.
Be still.
And Listen to the voice of our healing earth.
If the huge impact of coronavirus spread on the economy at large, including the loss of wage work to millions of those in the unorganised sector aside, the lockdown measures being implemented by the State government as part of the nation-wide shutdown have come as a blessing in disguise to the two power distribution companies running in losses.
With a major section of commercial establishments such as malls, cinema halls, restaurants and bars, showrooms of all sizes and public transport such as metro rail completely shut, service sectors such as banks, IT and ITES companies curtailing their on-site functioning by allowing as many employees as possible to work from home and many State and Central government offices running with skeletal staff, the demand for energy in the State has been on the slide for over a week now.
We have to admit that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us examples that lack humanitarianism. This may be due to the chaos caused by the spreading threat. However, such lack of humanitarianism seems to be deep-rooted. This is because of some countries’ and their ruling elites’ incurable egoism. Those who proclaim themselves as moral leaders with democratic traditions did not unite all parties to seek mutual understanding. Instead, they started to act according to the law of the jungle, regardless of etiquette rules and ethical constraints.
Everyone wants to turn the page on COVID-19 as soon as possible. But lessons are inevitable. And it’s up to each of us to decide if those lessons are right.It’s time to give up conventional thinking based on stereotypes and finally start acting from a moral perspective. After all, our best bet is a happy future for all who live on Earth, our common home.
You must be logged in to post a comment.