Covid-19 Pandemic And Emergence Of New World -By Ajeigbe Tunmise

Covid-19 came upon the world like rude shock and had its debris plunged into every functional parastatal of the countries in the world such as health-care system, governance, economics, and education, etc. It is a global challenge that affects almost every part of the world without any form of earlier notice. Although we all know this deadly virus started its spread in china but it is however visible that the entire world incurs its devastating heat.

The world health organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. COVID-19 simply stands for “Coronavirus disease 2019”. However, it is caused by several acute respiratory syndrome Coronaviruses II. Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that are common in people and different species of animals like bats and cats. Common humane Coronavirus is typically causing an upper respiratory tract infection, like the common cold, most people get infected with one or more of the viruses at some point in their lives.

In 2019 in Wuhan, a city that made a province in china noticed several unusual cases of pneumonia in a hospital, these patients mostly notably presented with the clinical symptoms of dry cough, fever, and bilaterally lungs info traits. The Coronavirus cases were eventually reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) country’s office in China on 31st of December 2019 and on the 1st of January, the market places in the city of Wuhan were shut down.

Furthermore, “on the 12th of January 2020, China shares the genetic sequence of the noble Coronavirus” which may be very important for other countries (developed and developing) as a specific diagnostics test. “On the 30th of January 2020, Coronavirus was declared as an emergency”, and “on the 11th of February the world health organization (WHO) announced the official name of the diseases will be COVID-19”, the shortened name of Coronavirus 2019. “On the 11th of March 2020, COVID-19 was declared as a “pandemic”. A pandemic is a global outbreak, something that ravages across the world.

Covid-19 pandemic is not only a threat to public health but also a major threat to the world’s economy. It already causes the global stock exchange to crash, raising fears of a recession. So far, African countries have escaped the scale of infection as seen in the other parts of the world but Africa has not escaped the economic consequence of the pandemic.

Africa countries trade more with the rest of the world than with her intra states. China as a country where the outbreak began is Africa’s biggest trading partner, and China’s economy was severely disrupted. Factories were closed down, international flights were suspended, market places were shut down and the entire country was on lockdown.

Suddenly, African traders who always fly to China to get China goods couldn’t get hold of the stock they need any longer.

China, the heartbeat of the world’s market hit holes in production, its demand for African commodities were fallen off the cliff. Angola and Congo Brazzaville sell more oil to China than other Africa countries. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil exporter sells more than one-third of its oil to Europe and Europe was one of the epic centers of the pandemic. Demand for oil in Europe was below the scales of production. Sale was not only Europe continent’s problem, the same slum hits other commodities like copper and other metals used in construction and manufacturing.

The demand for other goods was also dropping speedily as the COVID-19 pandemic hits its key trading partners. Ethiopia was in a battle to find a buyer for its coffee, Kenya for its flour, Ivory Coast for its cocoa, and Zambia for its copper.

Another big blow on the African economy nails on traveling and tourism. The number of tourists and businessmen visiting Africa from other parts of the world was fallen as flights were suspended and some governments imposed a traveling ban on passage from Europe, China, and the USA. Before the pandemic, tourism in Africa was growing at 5% a year in countries like South Africa, Botswana, Rwanda, and Uganda, etc.

So far, many African countries have not survived the death disruption that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused in Italy and China, but it has always been a piece of sad news in Africa when it comes to the economic fallout as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 pandemic continues to paralyze the financial and economic sectors. This is the case of Nigeria which plans to reduce its operating budget for the year 2020, the current crises caused by the drop in oil price could lead to other consequences including the recession and a devaluation of Naira, the national currency. Nigeria Africa’s largest oil-dependent economy was seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The minister of finance said that the government will provide a budget downward following the shortfalls in the entire world’s oil price, she said it is very clear that the nation must review the reference price of the crude oil which happens to have sold at the rate less than 50 USD per barrel. She added that the consequences are that, there will be dropping of revenue which means the reduction in the size of the budget. For now, Nigeria still depends on oil, which generates 90% of its income. Some analysts argued that the country has not learned its lesson for the past times in terms of diversification of its revenue base. Many Nigerians are afraid of the devaluation of the national currency, but the center said it is working to avoid a perilous outcome for the foreign exchange according to the governor of the central bank of Nigeria.

Technologically wise, COVID-19 has improved the world’s communication strength in a rapid rate which differs from times past. The sudden lockdown has given birth to several alternatives to distant-communication techniques. Many events that supposed to hold physically, COVID-19 pandemic have made it possible to conduct them virtually irrespective of distance. Conferences, seminars, meetings, lectures, training, convocation ceremonies, and matriculation ceremonies, etc, were being observed virtually online to overcome too much crowd and gathering without any bridge to the COVID-19 safety precautions.

The world and other recognized health organizations in the world have not approved any vaccine yet for the virus, the body immune system as defense, and that is why public health measures against COVID-19 are very important to help to reduce the spread of the virus. It has come to the time that some hospitals are filled up with Covid-19 patients, waiting for a response but there were no adequate treatment centers. To get rid of this is to increase the rate of social distancing in other to slow down the rate of the spread of the deadly virus infection, for us to be able to curb the likelihood of more people getting infected by this virus.

There are a number of measures that we can do to help in fighting against this, the first step is to protect oneself firstly by washing one’s hand thoroughly for at least about 20 seconds especially after visiting public places. It is also advisable to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer instead of using water and soap. One also needs to avoid close contact with those who are sick and also reduce human to human transmission and avoid large social gatherings in case there is someone potentially sick there.

One can protect others by staying at home. If someone is sick, isolation is much recommended for about a week and if symptoms concerned with COVID-19 are evident, one needs to contact his or her doctor for potential diagnosis, covering the mouths when sneezing and coughing with a tissue. One must make sure he or she washes his hand regularly. Wearing of face masks is also mandatory for use in every public gathering.

Any measures prescribed by a doctor or a hospital are also important. This includes being cognizant of the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 in people around us, isolating people who are infected with Covid-19 and to provide uttermost treatment for those patients.

In conclusion, the entire world has felt the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic as it is one of the greatest challenging pandemics that the planet earth has ever experienced so far in the historical book of creation. Many countries’ economies had fallen down without any chances of resurrection, many social institutions such as schools, market places, and religious gatherings were shut down and it all affects day to day activities of men and women.

Many personalities across the globe such as prime ministers, governors, lawmakers, sport-officials, celebrities, and business personnel, etc. have kicked the bucket due to the deadly virus. Some were infected with the infection but later got healed with the accordance of good treatments.

The quintessential motif of this article is that it is very important to protect oneself and others by applying those measures being discussed in the preceding paragraphs of this article. Stay safe and thank you.

© AJEIGBE TUNMISE JOSEPH
Oluwatunmise1107@gmail.com
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