Unlike previous years, 2020 will go down in history as the year of the ruinous reign of the COVID-19 pandemic. No continent has been spared of the devastation in the wake of the spread. Economic meltdown, job losses, social reordering and deaths authenticated the emergence of the virus. In this piece, KEHINDE OYETIMI highlights the tragedies, in the year, following the pandemic.
Morgues across the world swelled with corpses; economies were shattered; individuals were painfully separated from loved ones; there was death in gatherings; the human world which celebrated community shrank into painful individualism. It was a pandemic; it was enervating; then, there was no known cure. The COVID-19 pandemic redirected world economies, policies and entrenched the need for a reviewed health system, just as it exposed the ruinous underbelly of many health sectors, with Africa leading the pack. The world was confronted with the largest global recession since the Great Depression, analysts argued.
China’s Wuhan was regarded as the originating platform of the virus in December 2019. By January 2020, the outbreak had been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organisation. As at last week, precisely December 18, 2020, more than 75.5 million cases had been confirmed, with more than 1.67 million deaths recorded by the ruinous virus.
While the world waited for a vaccine, recommended preventive measures and safety protocols were put in place. Chief among these included wearing a face mask in public gatherings or places, physical or social distancing, hand washing, ventilation and air-filtering, covering one’s mouth when sneezing or coughing, disinfecting surfaces, and monitoring and self-isolation for people exposed or symptomatic.
Across the globe, countries imposed travel restrictions, workplace hazard controls, lockdowns and facility closures. Indeed,there have been several vaccines distributed, with contact tracing of infected individuals still ongoing. In many countries, available treatments have only addressed symptoms, while efforts are being made to find vaccines that would prevent contracting the virus and also therapeutic drugs that halt the spread of the virus in the human body.
The effects of the pandemic have been severe: food shortages, educational institutions were closed down in many parts of the world, widespread food shortages. The social and mass media became challenged by the rampaging stranglehold of misinformation. In some cases, due to the originating place of the virus, many Chinese nationals in foreign countries were subjected to xenophobic attacks; in other cases those who had been treated and survived the viral infection were ostracised in certain circles and communities.
Response: Like Nigeria, like many other African nations
In many countries in Africa, the response was not only dismal but obviously displayed a general lack of facilities that could cater to the needs of the teeming infected populace. For health care providers, the risk and incidences of contracting the virus increased tremendously. Developed countries not only tried to cater to the needs of their health workers but also pushed medical equipment to countries struggling to contain the viral spread. In addition, in an attempt to maintain physical distancing, and to protect both patients and clinicians, in some areas non-emergency healthcare services are being provided virtually. Separating and isolating COVID-19 positive patients, increasing intensive care capabilities by training personnel, and increasing the number of available ventilators and beds became major challenges.
The pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Africa on 14 February 2020, with the first confirmed case announced in Egypt. The first confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa was announced in Nigeria at the end of February. Within three months, the virus had spread throughout the continent, as Lesotho, the last African sovereign state to have remained free of the virus, reported a case on 13 May. By 26 May, it appeared that most African countries were experiencing community transmission, although testing capacity was limited. Most of the identified imported cases arrived from Europe and the United States rather than from China where the virus originated. It is believed that there is widespread under-reporting in many African countries with less developed healthcare systems.
Impacts: From crude oil crash to food insecurity
The impacts of the pandemic oscillate from economics, culture, politics, agriculture and food security, environment and climate, xenophobia to education. Aside the many deaths that trailed the emergence of the virus, crude oil prices crashed, leaving a disgruntled economy. Food security became a troubling dimension and this has remained so for long.
Agathe Demarais of the Economist Intelligence Unit has forecast that markets will remain volatile until a clearer image emerges on potential outcomes. One estimate from an expert at Washington University in St. Louis gave a $300+ billion impact on the world’s supply chain that could last up to two years.
Global stock markets fell on 24 February due to a significant rise in the number of COVID-19 cases outside China.
Millions of people across the world lost their jobs. In Nigeria, it was worse considering the fluctuating economic conditions even before the pandemic. In the history of insurance companies, the world over, never has the rate of unemployment insurance claims soared like it did during the pandemic.The economic impact and mass unemployment caused by the pandemic raised fears of a mass eviction crisis.
Even as the world ushers itself into 2021, the World Bank has warned that up to 100 million more people globally could fall into extreme poverty due to the shutdowns that early took place. Also speaking, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) informed that the income generated in first nine months of 2020 from work across the world dropped by 10.7 per cent, or $3.5 trillion, amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
Many churches insisted older Christians stayed home rather than attend services on Sundays. Christian religious services were streamed online, and broadcasted on radio and television. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rome closed its churches and chapels and St. Peter’s Square was emptied of Christian pilgrims. Even pilgrimage to Jerusalem was banned. Other religious bodies also cancelled in-person services and limited public gatherings in churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples. Saudi Arabia banned the entry of foreign pilgrims as well as its residents to holy sites in Mecca and Medina. The 2020 Hajj was limited to around 1,000 selected pilgrims, in contrast to the usual number of over 2 million.
The sporting world was not left off the hook of the pandemic. Most major sporting events were cancelled or postponed, including the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League, 2019–20 Premier League, UEFA Euro 2020, 2019–20 NBA season, and 2019–20 NHL season. Plans for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, were disrupted by the pandemic. The olympics had been originally scheduled to start at 24 July 2020.
Salvo of protests
There were reported protests and demonstrations around the world against responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by governmental bodies. Some forms of protests were compared to the Anti-Mask League of San Francisco movement that was seen during the 1918 pandemic. Various strikes also occurred.
In Nigeria, a group of at least twenty coronavirus patients forced their way out of an isolation facility to protests against alleged improper care and the government’s actions which they believed to worsen their conditions. Workers at a construction site rioted against lockdown measures that limited their ability to work on constructing an oil refinery for a popular magnate.
Also in South Africa, Mmny residents protested against the policy that food parcel aid would only be going to households that earn below R3600, and demanded action from the South African Social Security Agency. Surfers also protested to be allowed to surf during the lockdown, that allows exercise but not water activities.
In Pakistan, dozens of doctors were arrested in Quetta after protesting the lack of safety equipment that they had been given to battle the spread of the disease. Hundreds of laborers protested against their forced layoffs due to the pandemic by gathering outside their old places of work throughout the city of Karachi.
Parents of students who had been studying abroad in the Chinese province of Hubei protested against the government’s decision to leave the children in the area in February 2020.
The first protests against the national mandatory lockdown in the United Kingdom took place in April 2020, extending into the following month before abating as lockdown restrictions were slowly eased. As local area lockdown measures were reintroduced towards the end of summer, followed by stricter national lockdown measures, anti-lockdown protests resurged across the country beginning in September 2020. More than 55 protestors have been arrested in these events as of October 2020. Some protestors have claimed that COVID-19 is a hoax, and many refused to wear masks or practice social distancing. Protests have occurred in Shrewsbury, Glastonbury, London, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow, Belfast, Hove, Birmingham,Liverpool, and a few other cities.
United States national response began in early January, originating with actions by the CDC and the White House. The first US case of COVID-19 was recorded on 19 January 2020. In the United States the response was determined by state and local officials in coordination with the CDC and federal officials. On 9 February, Governors were briefed by the White House
Coronavirus Task Force. Beginning in mid-March various social distancing measures to limit spread of the virus were undertaken by state governors and in some cases counties or cities. Actions taken included Stay-at-home orders (“quarantine”), school and business closures, and limitation on the size of gatherings.
On 19 March 2020, President Donald Trump, and Vice President Mike Pence met (via teleconference) with governors of most states to continue coordination and to assist states with their responses. FEMA was brought into the effort around this time. By 7 April, 42 states had lockdown orders orders in place. The shutdowns had serious economic effects, including a steep rise in unemployment due to the shutdown of stores and workplaces. By 15 April protests and demonstrations had broken out in some states, demanding that the area be “re-opened” for normal business and personal activity. By 1 May there had been demonstrations in more than half of the states, and many governors began to take steps to lift the restrictions.
The race for a vaccine
The race for a vaccine has been unrestrained. Several reports have established the protracted journey to developing a vaccine, the weight of putting ethics before profit and the challenge in developing a vaccine during a pandemic.
However, as of mid-December 2020, 57 vaccine candidates were in clinical research: namely, 40 in Phase I–II trials and 17 in Phase II–III trials. No vaccine candidate had fully completed a Phase III trial or obtained licensure, as of 13 December.
In November 2020, BioNTech and Pfizer Inc, Moderna, the University of Oxford (in collaboration with AstraZeneca), and the Gamaleya Institute announced positive results from interim analyses of their Phase III vaccine trials. As of 18 December, 12 countries had approved the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. Furthermore, Bahrain gave emergency marketing authorisation for the vaccine manufactured by Sinopharm, followed by the United Arab Emirates. By 16 December, in the United Kingdom, 138,000 people had received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during the first week of their vaccination programme.
And what happens in 2021?
The year 2021 holds various attractions for varied lots. While many are optimistic, others are not. One thing appears certain: even with the increasing number of vaccines being pushed out, the coronavirus may yet be around for a while. The year 2020 would remain a watershed in humanity’s health: social, psycho-spiritual and physical.
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