Jannatul Barsha
Professor Wu
English 1121
April 15,2020
COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on countries around the world, causing a global health crisis while forcing economies to shut down. The COVID-19 is an open threat to the lives of millions. The virus was first discovered in the city of Wuhan, China. A 55 years old individual in China may have been the first person to have contracted COVID-19. Now doctors and scientists are trying to trace the virus back to where it originated to learn more about its spread. If, for instance, doctors can find the earliest cases, they may be able to identify the animal host where the virus lurks.
The novel coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, with over 1.2 million confirmed cases and at least 72,000 dead. In the United States, there have been at least 706,880 cases and 32,230 deaths, according to a New York Times database. The virus is spreading faster than wildfires. Older Americans, those with underlying health conditions and those without a social safety net are the most vulnerable to the infection and to its societal disruption.
The common safety symptoms are fever, tiredness, dry cough, shortness of breath and some people may experience aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat and diarrhoea. There are laboratory tests that can identify the virus that causes COVID-19 in respiratory specimens. It takes about 7-14 days for the virus to completely infect our respiratory system. There is no vaccine for this pandemic so far. Scientists and doctors are trying their best to find a cure as soon as possible.
The entire earth has shut down. Coronavirus’s spread has left businesses around the world counting costs. The travel industry has been badly damaged, with airlines cutting flights and tourists cancelling business trips and holidays. Governments around the world have introduced travel restrictions to try to contain the virus. In order to stop the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, many countries across the world have started implementing very tough measures. Countries and world capital have been put under strict lockdown, bringing a total halt to major industrial production chains. More than 100 countries have travel restrictions because of coronavirus. Supermarkets and online delivery services have reported a huge growth in demand as customers stockpile goods such as toilet paper, rice, hand gloves, hand sanitizer , face masks and orange juices as the pandemic escalates.
The world looks different from the last global virus outbreak in 2003. Global growth is already slow, and financial markets already have very low interest rates, which means that central banks in almost every major country have little ammunition with which to mitigate any potential economic fallout. This puts greater pressure on governments to use the power of their purse to counter the economic fallout from the coronavirus. While the fallout from the coronavirus will disrupt supply chains and global demand that could also affect the U.S economy, the current situation also creates a lot of uncertainty over the longer term. Congress and the Trump administration can do a lot to counter the risks associated with the spread of the virus by engaging in fiscal policies that will provide relief to affected populations and mitigate disruptions to U.S firms.
One of the areas that scientists are witnessing a big difference in air quality. It seems that the pandemic is already leading to huge reductions in air pollution in those regions that have been
significantly affected by COVID-19 such as China and Italy since all the industry, aviation, and other forms of transport grind to halt. This pandemic is also likely to have a significant impact on other environmental factors, including the emission of greenhouse gases as the global economy heads into recession.
I have never felt this helpless before in eighteen years of my life. Me and my family have been self- quarantined for the past four weeks. This unexpected virus has been highly affecting all of us. I was hoping that the year 2020 would be sunflowers and sunshines and everything would be great since it is a new decade. But who knew we all would be home lockdown. Both my parents stopped working, all the schools and colleges had shut down. Everyday I live with this fear now that either me or my beloved ones might get affected by coronavirus. All my dreams and plans that I was living with seem to be in a path of hopelessness. Some of us are lucky that we are not being affected financially but whoever has been living in poverty is being affected the most and are being starved. It is getting harder to get food items from grocery stores as limited people are allowed at a time in the stores. It almost feels like I am being caged at my own place. But all I can hope for is that all this ends for everyone’s well-being so that we can go back to our normal lives.
