It has been said that , "Health is like money, we never have the true idea of its value until we loose it ".
Today we are facing a unprecendented situation of a virus called corona (covid-19 or SARS CoV-2) creating havoc around the whole world . WHO(wold health organisation) termed it as a pandemic ( a diseases which spreads around the world) and the hope to cope up from its effect is unforeseen in near future. It has spreaded in 190+ countries with more than 3.5 lakhs people affected due to it and mortality passed 15,000 worldwide.
Talking about its origin , it is said to originate in Hubei province of China (more specifically in Wuhan city ) , as early as in mid-November, but the report of new virus came into media only by 12 January. Since then, it has continued to spread around the world creating shock waves not just for people but for the economies around the world. Coronavirus is not new to us, world face the same situation in the year 2003 when SARS CoV(severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus) , a coronavirus of somewhat different genome than this one, spread in the world in around 29 countries with about 8000 cases worldwide, which orginated in China's Guangdong province.
There is much similarity between both the cases of 2003 and 2020 , with both the viruses affecting the respiratory system of human-being showing symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath , running nose , fever , pneumonia, to name a few. What is different in both cases is the severity with which they spreaded and the world's response. India reported its first case on 30 Jan in kerala. And today its toll rises to more than 500 cases with 11 deaths. The virus is continuing to surge in India , as more number of people are getting tested for the disease.
The fear is increasing day-by-day, of India getting into stage -3 of virus transmission (stage in which we cannot find the people with which affected people came into contact and there is mass spread). GOI and state governments analysing the impact has put several states on lockdown with a possibility of stringent measures in line by issuing total curfew in the places. Now, the question which arises in the mind of an ordinary citizens in the time of this type of situation, are:-
1) How can we possibly not get affected by the virus and what measures should we take for it ?
The answer to the first question is , since the possible vaccine for the virus has not been developed till now , though the work is going on in many countries including China, US, India, europe , now the whole responsibility rests on the people to get away with this virus. Possible steps should be to pay attention to hygiene, washing hands regularly, avoid social gathering, not to ignore the severity of this virus and cooperating with the orders of authorities , and most importantly, stay away from fake news and trust on reliable sources .
For the second question, the answer is that no one knows how long this virus goes , as the whole responsibility lies on us to mitigate this virus , the more we cooperate intra-nationally as well as inter-nationally will help us cope up with it fastly.
Now coming to the third question, today this virus has not only affected the health of people around the whole world, but businesses, employment and economies around the world is facing the brunt of this Pandemic. We saw in recent days , stock market indicators around the world -Nikkei of Japan , S&P 500 of US or NIFTY of India , all are nose-diving due to the uncertainty posed by the pandemic. Buisnesses are closing, investors are going into panicking mode, sectors like Tourism sector, Aviation sector, Automobile sector to name a few, showing their worst performances since the 2008 financial crisis. The only hope this world has , is to face this Pandemic by cooperating with each other. Coming to Indian Economy, it is too early to say about the impact on Indian Economy but one this is clear that with the different indices coming in , global recession is not unexpected , which no doubt will affect the globalised Indian Economy. The most the GOI, can do is to contain and mitigate the virus at the same time helping businesses and sectors by providing them stimulus packages in the form of liquidity , so that the effect of pandemic can be lessen on these crucial sectors.
One thing is in our advantage in this situation that is India's encounter with these types of epidemics in the past like- H1N1 flu, Nippah virus etc, and with that we have improved our system in integrated survelliance system and our preparedness has improved for these situations. The pro-active measurements government took like - curbing air travels, sealing borders, lockdowns or curfews, etc. are praiseworthy . Equally praiseworthy are the contribution of our health wokers, security personnels and other important ground workers. Today, We are facing a problem which we know nothing about, we are like guns without bullets , so all we can do is to prepare ourselves for the worst, take precautionary measures, and contribute our bit to this world because we always need to remember what former US President John Adams said "Every problem is an opportunity in disguise". So accepting this problem and taking advantage from it, we can prepare ourselves for such type of situations in the coming future .
Today we are facing a unprecendented situation of a virus called corona (covid-19 or SARS CoV-2) creating havoc around the whole world . WHO(wold health organisation) termed it as a pandemic ( a diseases which spreads around the world) and the hope to cope up from its effect is unforeseen in near future. It has spreaded in 190+ countries with more than 3.5 lakhs people affected due to it and mortality passed 15,000 worldwide.
Talking about its origin , it is said to originate in Hubei province of China (more specifically in Wuhan city ) , as early as in mid-November, but the report of new virus came into media only by 12 January. Since then, it has continued to spread around the world creating shock waves not just for people but for the economies around the world. Coronavirus is not new to us, world face the same situation in the year 2003 when SARS CoV(severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus) , a coronavirus of somewhat different genome than this one, spread in the world in around 29 countries with about 8000 cases worldwide, which orginated in China's Guangdong province.
There is much similarity between both the cases of 2003 and 2020 , with both the viruses affecting the respiratory system of human-being showing symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath , running nose , fever , pneumonia, to name a few. What is different in both cases is the severity with which they spreaded and the world's response. India reported its first case on 30 Jan in kerala. And today its toll rises to more than 500 cases with 11 deaths. The virus is continuing to surge in India , as more number of people are getting tested for the disease.
The fear is increasing day-by-day, of India getting into stage -3 of virus transmission (stage in which we cannot find the people with which affected people came into contact and there is mass spread). GOI and state governments analysing the impact has put several states on lockdown with a possibility of stringent measures in line by issuing total curfew in the places. Now, the question which arises in the mind of an ordinary citizens in the time of this type of situation, are:-
1) How can we possibly not get affected by the virus and what measures should we take for it ?
2) How long the situation will go on like this?
3) Is the impact the Economy of India facing can be compensated in the coming days and the jobs lost will be reversed?The answer to the first question is , since the possible vaccine for the virus has not been developed till now , though the work is going on in many countries including China, US, India, europe , now the whole responsibility rests on the people to get away with this virus. Possible steps should be to pay attention to hygiene, washing hands regularly, avoid social gathering, not to ignore the severity of this virus and cooperating with the orders of authorities , and most importantly, stay away from fake news and trust on reliable sources .
For the second question, the answer is that no one knows how long this virus goes , as the whole responsibility lies on us to mitigate this virus , the more we cooperate intra-nationally as well as inter-nationally will help us cope up with it fastly.
Now coming to the third question, today this virus has not only affected the health of people around the whole world, but businesses, employment and economies around the world is facing the brunt of this Pandemic. We saw in recent days , stock market indicators around the world -Nikkei of Japan , S&P 500 of US or NIFTY of India , all are nose-diving due to the uncertainty posed by the pandemic. Buisnesses are closing, investors are going into panicking mode, sectors like Tourism sector, Aviation sector, Automobile sector to name a few, showing their worst performances since the 2008 financial crisis. The only hope this world has , is to face this Pandemic by cooperating with each other. Coming to Indian Economy, it is too early to say about the impact on Indian Economy but one this is clear that with the different indices coming in , global recession is not unexpected , which no doubt will affect the globalised Indian Economy. The most the GOI, can do is to contain and mitigate the virus at the same time helping businesses and sectors by providing them stimulus packages in the form of liquidity , so that the effect of pandemic can be lessen on these crucial sectors.
One thing is in our advantage in this situation that is India's encounter with these types of epidemics in the past like- H1N1 flu, Nippah virus etc, and with that we have improved our system in integrated survelliance system and our preparedness has improved for these situations. The pro-active measurements government took like - curbing air travels, sealing borders, lockdowns or curfews, etc. are praiseworthy . Equally praiseworthy are the contribution of our health wokers, security personnels and other important ground workers. Today, We are facing a problem which we know nothing about, we are like guns without bullets , so all we can do is to prepare ourselves for the worst, take precautionary measures, and contribute our bit to this world because we always need to remember what former US President John Adams said "Every problem is an opportunity in disguise". So accepting this problem and taking advantage from it, we can prepare ourselves for such type of situations in the coming future .
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