Impacts of COVID-19 on the global economy
The COVID-19 pandemic is devastating livelihoods, economies, and other public service systems throughout the globe. Coronavirus pandemic is subject to spread like wildfire over a sizeable geographical location, posing a significant threat to livelihood and continuity of life in every corner of the World. The novel coronavirus, also called COVID-19, is an illness that affects the respiration system of human beings. The virus was first identified towards the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China, with patients who had severe pneumonia-like symptoms whose origin was not known. Genome sequencing indicates that the virus is structurally similar to bat coronaviruses appearing that bats are the primary hosts, but the intermediate host is still unknown. In January 2020, COVID-19 was declared as a health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic had spread to approximately 260 countries as of April 2020, with over 3.2 million people infected in the United States and thousands of fatalities. The coronavirus pandemic poses long-term impacts on the global economy, the health sector, the food sector, and the social and political fields across most nations, if not all. As coronavirus continues to ravage many nations across the World, this paper seeks to assess the long-lasting impacts of COVID-19.
Impacts of COVID-19 on the global economy
COVID-19 has stifled economic activities affecting the financial markets as well as business in most parts of the World. The heightened spread of the virus encourages people to maintain a social distance as a safety precaution. This social distancing has resulted in the closing of financial, products, and stock markets and private businesses, hindering many monetary and fiscal policies governing the world economy. COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant financial crisis in the stock markets. The stock market lost approximately $6 trillion in a span of six days in February 2020 (Cite). Also, large international banks have received a plunge in their share prices. Banks such as Barclays witnessed a share price fall by 52%, while JP Morgan Chase’s price share fell by 38% in March 2020 (Cite). The slowdown in the micro-economies also led to a poor performance by the banking sector. There was a considerable decline in the number of transactions done in a day, including transactions via ATM machines. The decrease in financial transactions and the decrease of interest on loans negatively affected the amount of profits earned. The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 on the financial and stock global markets is the fall of share prices and fall of interest rates charged by banks, which might take time to regain their original rates.
The tours and travel industry in the globe also faced a great threat as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The indefinite suspension of domestic tours and travel, as well as banning of foreign air travel, led to the reduction of people traveling. Travel restrictions imposed by countries forced some airlines such as the Scandinavian airlines to cancel their operations to limit the movement of people as a preventative measure of coronavirus spread. The restrictions in movement cost the global tourism sector over $200 billion (cite). Moreover, COVID-19 pandemic posed a spillover to the hospitality industry. As a result of restricted travel, social distancing, and stay-at-home policy to control the spread of the coronavirus, a lot of restaurants and hotels were forced to shut down. Many staff and hotel executives were temporarily laid off as a result of low customer turnout. The hospitality industry sought approximately $150 billion bailout (cite). The economic impact of COVID-19 in the tourism and hospitality sectors globally threatened private investors who solely depend on their businesses as well as the governments that collect revenue and taxes from these industries.
Import dependent countries were also affected by the coronavirus pandemic. A reduction in goods demand through the global supply chain was noted. The reduction of goods was as a result of China shutting down many industries of its export companies as a result of the low demand for their goods in other countries. Chinese manufacturers serve a vital role in the global value chains, especially machinery and communication equipment. Low demand results in a hike in prices of goods triggering inflation on basic consumer commodities in import-dependent countries. Closure of country borders directly stifles the continuity of international trade, especially to countries that rely on Chinese supply. A downturn in production levels as a result of uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic directly affects the amount of exports done by affected countries, which is a threat to economic growth.
Impacts of COVID-19 on the food sector
The COVID-19 pose significant negative effects on players along the food-related value chain. Previous pandemics such as the Ebola virus disease indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic will have dramatic and rapid effects on food security. The people along the food value chain are producers, processors, transporters, and consumers. Coronavirus virus directly affects the food sector by affecting the supply and demand of food as well as the ability to produce and distribute food. Movement restriction may result in difficulties in transporting raw materials to the processors, while processors have a challenge in accessing the market. Farmers’ income as well as processors profits are prone to reduction due to the uncertainty in demand and supply. Farm laborers and the population working in processing factories also face a threat of reduced waged or lost wages affecting their financial stability and their ability to buy food. Disruption of the food supply chains by the impact of coronavirus not only causes haphazard availability of food but also causes the rise of malnutrition levels in the population.
Coronavirus pandemic would result in food shortages, which results in a considerable price spike for the available food in the market. Price spikes would be felt by the vulnerable population who depend directly on food from the local markets as well as other people who depend on food aids and humanitarian assistance to access food. High food prices increase the financial constraints that can, at times, fuel perceived sentiments that can accelerate the start of a conflict (cite). The degree of social effects as a result of high food prices is directly proportional to the rate at which countries depend on food imports. Limited access to food, soaring, and disruption of the food supply chain unemployment caused by this global pandemic poses a great threat to the livelihoods of the vulnerable and poor population.
Social impacts of COVID-19 pandemic
Coronavirus pandemic could also have negative effects on the social stability of affected countries. The pandemic is detrimental to most people, including old people, persons with disabilities, and people living in poverty conditions. This is as a result of the measures laid down to combat the spread of the disease, which affects the social life of most people. Firstly, most people have either been permanently or temporarily laid off from workplaces. This is evident that poor people will face economic as well as food-related crises due to lack of enough money to cater for food. Other health problems are set to affect poor people who are homeless. Homeless people are at a higher risk of contracting the virus and face its aftermath due to the unavailability of safe shelter and adequate food.
Old people particularly with chronic health conditions stand at a great risk of getting infected with COVID-19. Isolation measures put in place greatly affect old people because they are not capable of supporting themselves. This results to more suffering by the old people who are isolated at the time they need more support. Other negative stereotypes may be exacerbated about the need of caring and treating of old people who are viewed as a burden to the society. Most people in the society may prefer treating the young generation as opposed to treating the old who are perceived as having low value.
The proposed self-care and individual preventive measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic can have a threat for persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities may have challenges in implementing personal hygiene and frequent sanitization of surfaces at home. The challenges are mainly caused by their physical impairments, visual impairments and cognitive impairments. It is also hard for them to maintain social distancing as thorough as possible because some are in need of help from other people to efficiently perform the self-care tasks.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted to closure of many social service providers and educational facilities such as universities and training institutes across many jurisdictions. Disruption of education and learning pose a long-term consequence on the education quality. The unprecedented circumstances caused by coronavirus pandemic has resulted to billions of students to stay at home in efforts of combating the spread of this deadly virus. Teachers and students staying at home highly affects the school calendars with a disruption of most national and regional exams. Social injustices such as child labor, early marriages, and unplanned pregnancies of school children are set to increase due to the impact of school closures.
Health impacts of COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 has caused unprecedented effects on the state of global health and disease management. People who have contracted the deadly coronavirus that affects the respiratory system are at a great risker of having long-term health problems such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In addition, people in quarantine facilities may suffer from mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. It is also clear that all affected countries need equipment and other medical supplies to test their citizens and protect against COVID-19. Moreover, the economic costs needed are high in conducting research to come up with vaccines, medicine or other therapeutic methods of the virus prevention. Nations globally need to fund scientists to facilitate research in defining the exact mechanism behind the viral infection.
Conclusion
COVID-19 being a global health pandemic, carries with it a series of impacts that affect the livelihoods of people globally. It has affected the way many individuals function making a vast majority of the world population to stay at home. Most jobs are done from home electronically and through the internet to prevent gatherings that hasten the spread of the virus. This pandemic poses a great threat in the decline of the global GDP due to disruption in the amount of goods traded in international trade. The COVID-19 pandemic has a direct effect on the food systems affecting food supply and demand. In addition, the pandemic is a threat to the state of global health leaving the patients with long term impacts on their state of health. The virus is also detrimental in affecting social lives of people throughout the World. However, social distancing, sanitization, wearing of face masks in public places as well as minimizing unnecessary movements are a tentative solutions of combating the spread of COVID-19.