COVID-19 and Where We Are Now
Since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020, much has changed and evolved pertaining to the virus. As the public health crisis progressed, countries continued to deploy all of their efforts to ensure the safety of their people and minimize the spread of this virus. This article will recount the progress that we, as a world, have gone through to observe and analyze the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic.
BY AAYUSH BHATT
Ever since the coronavirus spread across the world, multiple countries have been severely affected. The top seven of which include the following: USA, India, Brazil, France, Russia, Turkey and UK. As of June 2021, there have been a total of 181,653,524 COVID-19 cases worldwide out of which the top seven countries have 57.5 % of these cases (total of 104,451,900 cases of the top 7 countries with the most cases). This is because either these countries are too densely populated, making social distancing very difficult, or there have been other factors such as lack of sanitation, lack of travel restrictions, etc. Over the past one year there has been a huge surge in the number of COVID cases in India, from 217,000 cases in June 2020 to 30,000,000 cases in June 2021.
However the validity of the number of coronavirus cases is also subject to the total number of COVID tests happening in these countries. A ratio of the number of COVID cases and the number of COVID tests in a country presents a more accurate measure for the severity of COVID in a country. A high number of cases could also be subject to a large population. In Brazil 34.6% of tested patients are COVID positive, while the other countries in the top sevens list have under 10% of their COVID tests positive.
Worldwide there is a mortality rate of 2.21% with a total of 3,935,008 deaths world wide. Again the top 7 countries with the most coronavirus cases hold 49.5% of the total deaths from COVID worldwide, with USA and Brazil having the most deaths. Although the top seven countries with the most COVID cases have a higher number of COVID deaths, the death to COVID cases ratio is relatively lower than other countries with fewer COVID cases. For example, Egypt has a higher death rate but much lower number of total COVID cases. Possible reasons include the lack of medical services in these countries or lack of sanitation.
COVID has not just had a physical effect but has also had an economical and educational effect on most. In 2020, the cancelation of the SAT tests had led to an overflow of test applications on later dates, which meant many candidates could not sit their SATs due to too many candidates and too few centers. Similarly there was a cancelation in the IB and GCSE examinations and all students were graded on the basis of their teachers’ predictions. In fact the current IB students, have also face cancelations of certain papers in some of their subjects. Online schooling meant a lack of face to face coordination with peers for students which led to the inability for students to interact and participate in social or team building activities – which is a major part of a students learning experience.
During COVID, 38 countries have faced a fall in their GDP (Gross Domestic Product). In Spain, UK and Tunisia the decline in output was more than 20% during their second quarter last year. Some of the major countries that have faced an economic decline include, UK, France, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Singapore etc. Multiple countries are also suffering from a rise in their unemployment rate and their underemployment rate. In Hong Kong unemployment rose to 6.2% and in the UK unemployment rose to 4%. During the early stages of the covid, over 33 million people had filed for unemployment benefits in the USA during April and May 2020. In certain countries where governments are restricting businesses from firing their employees, citizens are suffering from either a pay cut or under employment – doing a job which is below their qualification. Travel restrictions have affected many businesses, especially trading firms and airlines as there are increasing costs but limited flow of revenue.
All over the world to fight COVID, multiple organisations have been making a COVID vaccine. There have been over 2.96 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide. These vaccines include:
- BionTech, Pfizer
- AstraZeneca
- Moderna
- CanSino
- Inovio
- Sinovac
- Sinopharm
- Novavax
- Gamaleya
- Clover Biopharmaceuticals
- Jhonson and Jhonson
- Sanofi,Glaxosmithkline
- Merck & Co.
References
- Coronavirus Cases: Worldometer. (2021, July 15). https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/.
- Coronavirus Hong Kong. South China Morning Post. (n.d.). https://www.scmp.com/topics/coronavirus-hong-kong.
- Hasell, J. (2020, September 1). Which countries have protected both health and the economy in the pandemic? Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-health-economy.
- India: COVID-19 cases timeline 2020. Statista. (2021, July 12). https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104054/india-coronavirus-covid-19-daily-confirmed-recovered-death-cases/.
- Jonathan Gardner, Ned Pagliarulo, Ben Fidler, & Shoshana Dubnow. (2020, June 9). Coronavirus vaccines are rolling out quickly. Here’s where the pipeline stands. BioPharma Dive. https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/coronavirus-vaccine-pipeline-types/579122/.
- TOI. (2021, July 14). TOI Coronavirus Live Tracker: How India is fighting coronavirus. Updates, myth-busters, tips and more. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/coronavirus.