COVID-19: Impact and Implications

Abstract

The world we knew changed in an unprecedented way on 9th January, 2020 when the novel coronavirus disease was identified as the cause of pneumonia cases of unknown origin observed in Wuhan city of Hubei province in China. Within weeks, the world was in the grip of a global pandemic. Words such as PPE (personal protection equipment) kits, masks, gloves, sanitizers, social distancing, quarantine, isolation, lockdown, Janata curfew, to name a few, soon became a part of our day-to-day vocabulary. These terms are now a part of the discourse of the ‘new normal’ that the pandemic has created. In spite of remarkable medical advancement, the world has been struggling to tackle the pandemic effectively. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the economy of the mightiest of nations has suffered and the livelihood of approximately 1.6 billion people is threatened (Inman, 2020). People without a steady income are the worst hit.