COVID-19: Impact, Implications and Path Ahead

Abstract

The first human case of COVID-19 was reported on November 17, 2019 from Wuhan district in China and the novel coronavirus outbreak was declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. This is one of the worst calamities faced by humans with the pandemic spreading to 6 continents and over 219 countries with 134 million cases and 2.91 million deaths reported worldwide as on April 9, 2021 (John Hopkins, CSSE, 2021). It served as the greatest leveller of our times, as the virus affected the developed and developing world and the rich and poor alike. It brought to the fore the fragility of healthcare systems across the world. Even developed countries like the US and Italy, with allegedly the best healthcare infrastructure, crumbled. As Imrana Qadeer asserts in her article, we need to rediscover a public health approach that places human beings centre stage and demands that profits are redefined to include the value of lives and human welfare.