MASKS ON THE STREETS
In March 2020, Indians received news of the nationwide lockdown. It was a knock of the pandemic. All of a sudden, every news channel was filled with data on how many people were dying day by day. Every newspaper had different articles on the same topic and the heading was “Corona”.
Corona also known as COVID-19 is a disease caused by the virus named SARS-CoV-2(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus -2). It’s
infectious in nature and affects the respiratory system of humans. Corona spreads through the medium of air by the tiny droplets of the affected individual to the healthy person when people are in close contact. It shows symptoms after 2-14 days of infection. Symptoms include cough, breathing issues, tiredness, body aches, headache, fever and other cold-like symptoms as well. Many individuals have very less or even no symptoms which makes it more difficult to identify.
COVID-19’s outbreak first started in Wuhan, China in December 2019.COVID-19 is one of the seven coronaviruses which are known to make humans infectious. It spread to other Asian countries in early 2020 and in March 2020 Corona was declared as a global pandemic by the WHO(World Health Organization).
There are many theories associated with the origin of corona like leaks from laboratories or through contact with infected animals but they have no evidence to support the theories. The first time coronavirus was discovered was in 1965 which looked like a crown and hence given the name. The pandemic killed approximately 70 million people in the world. Corona affected 704,753,890 and a total of 675,619,811 were recovered according to the World COVID tracker. People lost their lives and families because of it. Many initiatives were taken by the governments of different countries to cope with the problem.
Guidelines were given by WHO and social distancing was maintained by the people as a prevention of corona. In different countries, the lockdown was implemented. On 24 March 2020, the Indian government also declared a lockdown for the first wave of COVID-19 for 21 days when people weren’t allowed to go outside their homes. An initiative of the Arogya Setu app was also made by the Indian government to have the track of nearby infected people. Work from home was initiated worldwide. Scientists all over the world were trying to make vaccines for corona as there were no medications for it. Everyone was expected to take precautions like time to time using sanitizers, wearing masks, washing hands etc.
Everything became virtual. Weddings took place virtually, meetings were held online which led to the rise of online meeting platforms. The economy of countries went upside down. Majorly people were facing mental problems because of the chaos created around them. Many people lost their jobs too, and as a result, unemployment increased. The second wave came in 2021 which was again very concerning. People were dying day by day though the recovery rate was more than that of a death rate. Many had no food to eat, money or even a home to live in.
Those who got affected were sent to hospitals but as the cases increased hospitals also had no place. People needed oxygen cylinders for survival but because of unavailability, many lost their lives. While taking care of the patients, doctors and nurses too suffered a lot. The cases were increasing and no one had a cure. COVID-19 indeed was the biggest crisis faced by humanity. Later vaccines were developed. In India, the administration of vaccines began on 16 January 2021 and till now 88% of the Indian population is fully vaccinated.
It was a crisis on humans and humanity yet the world showed unity and togetherness as every country was trying its best to help any other country globally.
By: Anushree Nagdeve
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