10 Ways In Which Coronavirus Is Affecting The Whole World

On Friday, the death toll in Italy, due to coronavirus outbreak, surpassed China. Italy got hard hit by the new and deadly coronavirus. China, being the epicentre of coronavirus outbreak, has officially reported 3,245 deaths from the virus. But, on Friday, Italy reported 4,032 deaths due to the virus. This made Italy the number one country with highest number of coronavirus deaths, second is China. Now, as a measure of health care, Italy has prolonged its national lockdown till April 3 so as to avoid more coronavirus fatalities.

Not just Italy or China, but the whole world has been affected drastically by the Coronavirus outbreak. Currently, 158 countries and territories are suffering from the COVID-19 outbreak. The global death toll has risen to over 11,000 with more than 2 million people hospitalised due to infections,globally. On this devastating situation around the globe, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, showed great concern. He also warned the whole world of the potential corrosive impact of the virus. He appealed to the public to stay safe and practice health hygiene.

In the midst of worldwide coronavirus crisis, China experiences a glimmer of hope. China reports on Friday no new virus-affected domestic cases for two days in a row. The country is said to have been able to curb the spread of virus by imposing strict quarantine rules. Wuhan, the central city of China, is the place from where the coronavirus spread. The ‘wet market’ of Wuhan is home to various sea and exotic animals including bats, snakes and pangolins both live and dead. The virus is said to have been originated from bats and snakes which got further contracted by humans via consumption.

After dismissing the threat of coronavirus initially, Trump lashed out at China recently when US was faced with the virus’s potential threat. Trump condemned the lack of responsibility at China’s part on hiding the outbreak. He commented that the whole world is paying price due to China’s irresponsible act. As a means to “flatten the curve”, Trump imposed lockdown of California, a home to 39 million people. In addition, US authorities are fast-tracking antimalarials chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for use as a coronavirus treatment. The drugs are synthetic forms of quinine, which has been used to treat malaria for centuries.

On Thursday, Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, called for a 14 hour “Janta Curfew” in India on Sunday March 22. As India has entered stage 2 of the coronavirus outbreak with around 300 infected cases and 5 deaths, the Indian health authorities are appealing to mass to cooperate in curbing the outbreak. The curfew will be observed on March 22 between 7 am to 9 pm in which nobody shall leave their houses. It is being said that the idea behind this curfew is to “break the chain” as the virus survives for 12 hours on any surface and the curfew is for 14 hours.

India, France, Germany, Russia, Argentina and many other countries either have imposed or are imposing national lockdowns to contain the fast spread of coronavirus. People are being instructed to get out of their houses only if they are in need of any essential items. Secondly, many countries have tightened their borders meaning they are banning the entry of non-residents. Also, asking their citizens to come back to their home countries. There is thermal screening happening at airports and people are being advised to go into self-isolation for 14 days.

Coronavirus is not only affecting lives but have also impacted the G7 Summit 2020. The Summit was all set to take place in June. It was meant to be hosted by US President Donald Trump at the Camp David presidential retreat near Washington. But now due to the adverse effects of the virus, the Summit will now be done online. The group of seven wealthy democracies will take part in the Summit via videoconferencing.

It’s not about one country’s national economy this time but in fact the whole of global economy has gotten affected due to the virus outbreak. In the midst of such paralyzing global economy and imploding stock markets, the policymakers have come with measures to save it. The European Central Bank has launched a €750 billion pandemic emergency bond-buying scheme.And the United States unveiled the $1 trillion economic stimulus package to address coronavirus fallout.

One of the major cultural events, the much-awaited and very popular international film festival, Cannes also got hit by COVID-19. The Cannes film festival, which was due to take place between May 12 and May 23 in France has gotten postponed. The organisers have decided do so due to the ongoing pandemic situation around the world.

This Tokyo will be hosting the 2020 Olympic games after 56 years. Greece handed over the Olympic flame to Tokyo at a closed-door ceremony amid coronavirus fears. The ceremony had very few spectators. There are chances that Olympic games too might get affected and postponed due to coronavirus outbreak.