A Snapshot of the State of COVID-19 in the World
In the absence of a vaccine, the WHO (World Health Organization) suggests frequent hand washing, social distancing, practice of respiratory hygiene and avoiding touching the eyes, nose and mouth. Which seems straightforward enough for everyone to understand and follow, but there’s the rub – people have always found a way of complicating the uncomplicated – and, this is the topic for another post.
Going back to my current post, today’s COVID-19 stats (worldometers.info) tell us that there are 3,356,237 cases (361, 297 more when I last posted about it 4 days ago). That’s an average of 90, 320 new cases per day; I find it really disturbing that many people are not taking this seriously.
296, 978 deaths (89, 981 more than my last post four days ago), which averages 22, 495 deaths per day. I mean this is serious stuff; much like the ones that we see in the movies or apocalyptic-themed series we can view on Netflix.
Luckily, 1, 067, 670 have been able to recover, which is 188, 955 more than four days ago; averaging 47, 179 recoveries a day.
Philippine Government’s Positive Actions
Here in the Philippines where I live, we have 8,722 confirmed cases, 579 who have died and 1,084 recoveries according to the government’s official COVID-19 site (covid19.gov.ph). The numbers are significantly lower than other countries, but still alarming.
I’m glad to see that our government is taking this seriously and implementing strict quarantine procedures and hard lockdowns in places where cases seem to be converging. It has also been listening to voices in the scientific and medical community so kudos to them. There have been negative news regarding the government too, but I do not want to focus on that for now (maybe in the next post?!).
Private Sector’s Aggressive Approach to Help
In an interview with CNN, food and beverage giant SMC (San Miguel Corporation) President Ramon Ang said that,
“At this point, what is more important are lives, not money. We can make money again, but life, once you lose it, it’s gone forever.”
And he has not been stingy. His company has already donated more than a billion pesos worth of personal protective equipment, alcohol, and food to poor communities.
Another example of corporate responsibility is entertainment and media conglomerate ABS-CBN Corporation’s “Pantawid ng Pag-ibig” campaign that kicked off with an online concert of 100 artists and the company donation of 100 million pesos (roughly $US2M). The fundraising concert raised Php 236,997,391 ($US4.74 M) and will help assist local governments in providing basic necessities to poor families.
Economic Impact of COVID-19
On a March 3, 2020 article at the Deloitte website, Dr. Daniel Bachman argued that COVID-19 could affect the global economy in three ways: direct effect on production, supply chain and market disruption, and impact on firms and financial markets.
According to him, the scenarios that they foresee largely depends on the public’s reaction and how it follows nonpharmaceutical interventions from the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), such as voluntary isolation of ill persons, voluntary home quarantine of exposed household members, social distancing, and environmental measures.
In the four scenarios, the best case described the slowing down of transmission in China, isolated outbreaks, but no massive spread of the disease, which creates a small and temporary impact on the world economy. On the other hand, the worst-case is a global pandemic and financial crisis where economic centers are placed on Wuhan-style lockdowns, decline of manufacturing and tourism, stagnation of the global GDP, international trade plummets, and worst yet, a global recession.
Fast forward (April 30, 2020), weforum.org Senior Writer Rosamond Hutt writes that in the first quarter of 2020, the US economy contracted at its fastest rate since the Great Recession. Also, 30 million Americans have filed unemployment claims as of April 24, 2020, and it is the same around the world.
If the trend continues, we will be heading down a dark and lonely path that will change the world as we know it today. Experts agree that it will be at least one year when a vaccine will be released after it completes clinical trials on humans.
A Sober Plea to Hiveans
Dear Hiveans, to end this article, I encourage everyone to follow social distancing, frequent hand washing and quarantine measures in your locality. This will be our contribution in the fight against a global recession that is hanging above our heads like the sword of Damocles hanging only by a single strand of horse hair. We can only do so much as individuals, but together we can help prevent the spread of the virus until a suitable vaccine has been approved and we’ve developed herd immunity.
Lastly, as a new blogger on the Hive Blog, I would like to get feedback on how I can get better. What did you like about this article? What can be improved? Any comment is welcome. An upvote is extremely encouraging and motivating, while a reblog means so much to a newbie like me.
Thanks for reading everyone. I sincerely wish for you, a safe and healthy life.
Till next time.
PS. To end on a positive note, I would like to highlight that the work-from-home arrangement has provided opportunities for some of our “housemates” to hone their craft and assist me in writing this article. As you can see, our dog Lotus is working intensely on some COVID-19 related statistics. It would be great if you can give her an upvote, too. Lol.
Attribution:
By ABS-CBN Corporation - http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37559989
References
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/business/2020/4/1/ramon-ang-extension-enhanced-community-quarantine.html
https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/03/23/20/abs-cbns-pantawid-ng-pag-ibig-raises-nearly-p237-m-for-families-hit-by-covid-19
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/economy/covid-19/economic-impact-covid-19.html
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/coronavirus-economic-effects-global-economy-trade-travel