Write an essay on pandemic COVID-19 in 350 words by keeping following points specially:
• How did you spend your time during lockdown due to COVID 19?
• Negative and positive impact of this pandemic virus.
• How did the leaders of all the Nations work to protect their countries?
• How safe are we being locked down without locks?
• Your duties towards country during this pandemic situation.
Answers
Answer:
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 4.3 million confirmed cases and over 290,000 deaths globally. It has also sparked fears of an impending economic crisis and recession. Social distancing, self-isolation and travel restrictions have lead to a reduced workforce across all economic sectors and caused many jobs to be lost. Schools have closed down, and the need for commodities and manufactured products has decreased. In contrast, the need for medical supplies has significantly increased. The food sector is also facing increased demand due to panic-buying and stockpiling of food products. In response to this global outbreak, we summarise the socio-economic effects of COVID-19 on individual aspects of the world economy.
Keywords: Economy, Economic impact, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Coronavirus
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1. Introduction
Labelled as a black swan event [1] and likened to the economic scene of World War Two [2], the outbreak of COVID-19 (the disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2)) has had a detrimental effect on global healthcare systems with a ripple effect on every aspect of human life as we know it. Sohrabi et al. highlighted the extent of the outbreak with the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring the COVID-19 outbreak as a global emergency on January 30, 2020 [3]. In a response to ‘flatten the curve’ [4], governments have enforced border shutdowns, travel restrictions and quarantine [5,6] in countries which constitute the world's largest economies, sparking fears of an impending economic crisis and recession [7].In an attempt to understand the turmoil effect on the economy, we summarise the effect of COVID-19 on individual aspects of the world economy, focusing on primary sectors which include industries involved in the extraction of raw materials, secondary sectors involved in the production of finished products and tertiary sectors including all service provision industries.
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2. Primary sectors
2.1. Agriculture
The resilience of the agricultural sector has been tested by the COVID-19 outbreak. A global crash in demand from hotels and restaurants has seen prices of agricultural commodities drop by 20% [8]. Countries around the world have imposed a number of protective measures to contain the exponentially increasing spread. This includes social distancing, avoiding unnecessary travel, and a ban on congregations. Advice on self-isolation upon contact with suspected carriers of the virus is likely to impact the number of available inspectors and delivery staff critical to ensuring verification and transportation of products. This will have pronounced implications for perishable goods such as meat and vegetables. Furthermore, markets have gone a step further by shutting down floor trading which has impacted the ability to exchange commodities. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is a recent example [9]. ‘Panic buying’ is further complicating shortages beyond supermarket shelves. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) have expressed concern over low levels of animal pharmaceuticals from several large drug suppliers [10].
2.2. Petroleum & oil
During a meeting at the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna on March 6th, a refusal by Russia to slash oil production triggered Saudi Arabia to retaliate with extraordinary discounts to buyers and a threat to pump more crude [11]. Saudi, regarded as the de facto leader of OPEC, increased its provision of oil by 25% compared to February – taking production volume to an unprecedented level. This caused the steepest one-day price crash seen in nearly 30 years – On March 23rd, Brent Crude dropped by 24% from $34/barrel [12] to stand at $25.70 [13]. Although a deceleration in the number of COVID-related deaths has caused some stabilisation of oil prices, there is still much uncertainty.
On the background of a viral outbreak already dampening the demand for oil, this oil-price war is predicted to have grave implications for the global economy. In more ordinary times, cheap oil may have functioned as an advantage for economies. However, savings on petrol are unlikely to be redirected into more spending as populations are instructed to practise social distancing and the working class are uncertain about job security. Furthermore, any increase to consumer activity is likely to be outweighed by damage caused to populations reliant on revenue from other forms of energy such as Shale gas [14]. Economic modelling from Imperial College's Centre for Climate Finance and Investment has suggested ‘Carbon Dividends’. A £50/tonne of CO2 tax could be channeled into UK households in order to stimulate consumer spending whilst keeping oil prices at the same level as February 2020 [15]. However, this relies on turbulence between Saudi Arabia and Russia, thus should not be considered sustainable for the long-term.
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