Outline
1. Corona Virus - An Introduction
a. Etymology
b. Origin
c. Spread
2. A Fatal Disease
a. Symptoms
b. Prevention
c. Cure
3. Corona Virus' Damage to Pakistan
a. Educational Institutes were closed
b. Industrial services were jammed
c. The working class lost their jobs
d. Many small businesses were crippled
4. Government's plans to tackle the damage caused by COVID-19
a. Ehsaas Programme
b. Smart Lockdown
c. Preparation of SOPs
d. Reopening of Educational Institutes
e. Testing of Vaccine
5. The future of Coronavirus lies in our hands.
Essay
The slogan "Stay home stay safe" has assumed the shape of a medicine of life against the novel Coronavirus. It is unofficially known as COVID-19. COVID-19 is made of COrona VIrus Disease 2019. The name was given by United Health Organization on February 11th, 2020. The official name of this virus is SARS-CoV-2 which breaks down to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - Coronavirus 2. The first-ever Coronavirus was discovered in animals in 1930.
The initial impact of COVID-19 was seen in the Chinese city of Wuhan during January 2020. The first death by the virus was reported on 11 January 2020 in China. The virus spread like a wildfire and by the end of January 2020, reported deaths were 170 and the infected people reached the number of 7,711. Wuhan is a city of 11 million people and foreigners. Their travel by the aeroplanes to other countries served as a major cause of the spread of the virus. By the time I am writing this essay, this virus has claimed the lives of 2 lacs American people while India has become the second most infected country and Brazil is the second country to report the most deaths.
It is a fact that the novel Coronavirus is a deadly disease. Its common symptoms are fever, dry cough and tiredness while the less common symptoms are headache, loss of taste and smell and a rash on the skin. But its serious symptoms are hardness while breathing or shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure and loss of speech or movement. The symptoms of COVID-19 may appear from 6 to 14 days.
Currently, the only treatment of the novel coronavirus is prevention. Wearing a mask, keeping a social distance of 6 feet from every person, washing hands for 30 seconds with soap or rubbing an alcohol-based sanitizer on hands, preventing from touching one's eyes and nose, and covering one's cough. The only cure or treatment is self-treatment or quarantining. One has to live in a separate room; has to use a separate bathroom and disinfecting one's belongings while maintaining a nutritious diet.
COVID-19 arrived in Pakistan on February 26th, 2020. Its spread in Pakistan was rapid enough which forced the Government of Pakistan to impose a nation-wide lockdown on March 14th, 2020, closing everything from educational institutes to industrial units, markets to places of worship. The emergence of COVID-19 had devastating effects on the people of Pakistan. Educational institutes were closed and online education had the problems of its own. Internet facilities were hardly present in the hilly and under-developed areas of Pakistan. The educational process of almost 1.57 billion children is affected during coronavirus and some might not even return to their schools since their parents have planted their children to child labour to meet their financial needs.
The surging pandemic has a long-term effect on the economy of Pakistan. Industry units were closed and their production rate was adversely affected during those days. Many people lost their jobs because there were not enough salaries for their employees. The labour working on wages had no opportunity to earn his bread and butter. Thus starvation was rampant in their houses. Many shops and small businesses were crippled because there were no customers outside in need of their services since everyone was confined to his home.
To give a relief to the working class of Pakistan, the Government established Ehsaas programme to distribute money to the deserving people of Pakistan. From August, the Government of Pakistan lifted the lockdown and allowed businesses to be opened and operational. The Government introduced smart lockdown, closing only the affected house or area instead of locking the whole area. SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) are introduced for almost every governmental and non-governmental department of life [although some of the SOPs are highly impractical]. The re-opening of the educational institutions is performed in different steps. But most importantly, the Government has begun testing the Ad5-nCoV vaccine in its third phase and some stunning results are expected.
But despite the recent success in the battle against COVID-!9, it has started surging again in Pakistan due to the arrival of winter. In order to safeguard our countrymen, we have to observe all the possible prevention measures because the future of Coronavirus lies in our hands*.
Sources and Suggested Readings
- https://www.goodrx.com/blog/what-does-covid-19-mean-who-named-it/
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/20/timeline-how-the-new-coronavirus-spread
- https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-answers-hub/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses#:~:text=symptoms
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Pakistan?oldformat=true
- https://www.dw.com/en/how-the-covid-19-crisis-is-affecting-pakistans-economy/a-54292705
- https://covid19.tabipacademy.com/2020/05/22/an-essay-on-covid-19-pandemic-by-prof-dr-mustafa-asim-safak/?fbclid=IwAR2vOJhgVK4uHi9UrJ1La7td0nRkdEJArAEtzKBJ8amftzWFzXx6xKrmjFU
- https://www.facebook.com/unicef/posts/10158625125559002
- https://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan-54298495
* It denotes the implication of the general SOPs against Coronavirus.
