Raja Furqan Ahmed
The spontaneous change in the life of human kinds comes through the pandemic called COVID-19. Approximately 7.8 billion world population feels threat and larger confined at home. In many parts of the world borders are closed, trade stop, hotels, businesses shut down, churches, Mosque, learning institutions close, stock market crashes, economy collapse etc. Government takes unprecedented measures to stop the spread of coronavirous. The pandemic first outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019. Later on it spread around the globe and on 30 January 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Public Health Emergency of International Concern on and recognized it as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
China’s experience so far shows that the right policies make a difference in fighting the disease and mitigating its impact most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.
Corona virus disease spreads primarily through contact with an infected person when they cough or sneeze. It also spreads when a person touches a surface or an object that has the virus on it, and then touches their eyes, nose, or mouth. Simplest protection from corona virus is to wash your hands frequently, avoiding touching your face, and avoiding close contact with people who are unwell.
Majority sitting at home and waiting for the situation to become better. As a university student, corona virus really affects my social life. In a normal day life was quite fantastic with lots of task and work but literally in a few days the situation changes. Quarantine has been started and country like Pakistan stays at home for a long time is too difficult but for the survival we have to take that step. My day started with the prayer, a healthy breakfast, taking online classes (forcefully), Long conversation with friends, Enhancing old skill as well as learns a new skill, writing Articles and finally read a book I had in my shelf for years. In addition to, this pandemic doesn’t only affect your social life but it really impact on the state economy. Specifically I will discuss the case study of Pakistan that corona virus has become threat to the pace of development. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) report it’s stated that the virus outbreak could cost the Pakistan economy in the range of $16.387 million to $4.95 billion, or 0.01 % to 1.57% of Gross Domestic Product.
Furthermore, United Nations estimates international tourism to drop 3% due to virus resulting a loss up to $50 Billion globally, is another bad news for the government of Pakistan which is committed to increase tourism exports. Same case in Aviation industry that till now Pakistan International Airline (PIA) loss almost 6 billion.
As per the Asian Development Bank the “best-case scenario”, the loss would be $16.23 million, of which Pakistan’s agriculture and mining sectors could sustain a loss of $5.5 million, business trade, personal and public service a loss of $5.54 million, hotels and restaurants a loss of $0.67 million, light and heavy manufacturing a loss of $3.6 million, and transport services incur a loss of $0.92 million. In the “moderate-case scenario”, the projected loss that Pakistan may suffer is estimated to be $34.2 million. In the worst-case scenario, ADB estimates Pakistan to suffer a loss of $5 billion, of which $1.5 billion loss will be incurred in the agriculture and mining sector, $1.94 billion in business and trade, $253.7 million in hotel and restaurants, $671 million in light and heavy engineering, and $565.6 million loss in transport services. The report also highlights that this loss would plunge Pakistan’s GDP by at least 1.57 per cent and trigger 9, 46,000 job losses.
This pandemic is invisible and unknown enemy. We all have to fight with determination and hope and to win this war we have to follow the precautions and keep the social distancing.
The writer is a student of International Relations and Freelance journalist currently based in Islamabad, Pakistan.
