Life in Pre-Covid & Post-Covid Era.

On 11th of March 2020, WHO declared The Novel Coronavirus Disease  ( Covid-19) outbreak as a pandemic and reiterated the call for countries to take immediate actions and scale up response to treat, detect and reduce transmission to save people’s lives. The COVID-19 pandemic in India is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The first case of COVID-19 in India, which originated from China, was reported on 30 January 2020. India currently has the largest number of confirmed cases in Asia, and has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the world after the United States, with more than 9 million reported cases of COVID-19 infection and more than 100 thousand death.

 The Alarming Situation

Today on 1st of December 2020 as I'm writing this sitting here in India we have with us the numbers summing up to a total of 4,44,746 active cases with over 1,34,699 deaths recorded uptill now and these huge figures are posing a huge trouble for the citizens who are living here in India and for the World as well. Calling the surge in Covid-19 cases in the Capital alarming, the Delhi high court on Thursday said it would hear, on December 9, a plea by the Association of Healthcare Providers challenging the state government’s decision of reserving 80% ICU beds in 33 private hospitals for Covid-19. Justice Navin Chawla said, “The numbers are presently in alarming state. The matter should be heard after two weeks looking at the present situation.” On Thursday, appearing for the Delhi government, additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain said the situation was being reviewed periodically and review meetings were being conducted under the chairmanship of the Union home minister. Following this, the court posted the matter for further hearing on December 9.

Pre-Covid Era

A return to “pre-COVID” life — without social distancing or precautions such as face masks — may not happen until 2022, WHO’s chief scientist.

First, a vaccine needs to be deployed, and then people need to develop immunity for communities across the world to return back to “normal,” Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief science officer, said during in a virtual meeting.

The novel coronavirus has drastically changed our lives – the mask has become ubiquitous, files are handled only while wearing gloves, and pockets and purses always carry hand sanitisers. People earlier used to live their lives with full zeal and zest without any trouble but in common parlance "Virus" has become a sinister word. In the last six months, the mere mention of the word sets off alarm bells in our heads. One becomes wary of people who say they have travelled recently, or that their relatives have attended a marriage. The coronavirus is so feared, that one is advised to avoid not just the house of a positive patient, but an entire neighbourhood just because a case was reported there a few days ago. In offices, the visitor’s chair and the table are sanitised after the visitor leaves. God forbid if someone coughs or sneezes, the whole office is on tenterhooks and the visitor is cursed. If it happens in an elevator, there is panic! 

Travelling during Covid: Hills or beaches?

Travelling during Covid: Hills or beaches? The eternal dilemma for a traveller continues as more people are preferring hill-stations as holiday destinations to escape the monotony and psychological stress caused by the unprecedented Coronavirus pandemic. The travel trends in the new normal have indicated that more people have plans to go on holiday during festival season. Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, North-east, Kerala, and Rajasthan are top five destinations for holiday goers within India during the Coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey conducted by online travel portal Yatra.com. Around 5,000 respondents took part in the Yatra’s annual festive survey. The survey showed an “uptick in demand for travel as almost 75 per cent of respondents said they are planning to take up a vacation compared to 2019 where 61 per cent of respondents were willing to go on a holiday during the festive season.” The trend of advance booking showed 39.3 percent of respondents planning leisure trips for more than one month in advance to rest, relax, and recuperate. However, number of cases in the vicinity, sanitization measures adopted, government guidelines, amenities in case of emergency are among the factors that have been getting priority from travelers.

While over 52 per cent of respondents sought medical or travel insurance, more than 50 per cent of the participants have revealed that they would prefer ordering room service rather than visiting restaurants and bars. More than 72 per cent of respondents said that they will be going through sanitization processes followed by monuments and tourist spots before planning a visit to them. Around 48 per cent of respondents are planning their holiday with the family.

Interestingly, hills seem to be beating beaches as preferred location for holiday goers. Over 37 per cent of respondents said they would like to visit the hills. Meanwhile, budget travel continues to see a spike as over 35 per cent of respondents have set Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 per person as set targets for their budget during vacations, the Yatra survey said.Vacations was the time during which everyone can finally take a break. Because usually, people have a hectic work routine around their desk. Most importantly, holidays are the time when one can relax and understand as to how he/she improve their skills.

Interaction

If you live by yourself, you’ve made do without human touch for months on end; if you’re crammed into a small space with your partner, kids and your parents, you may have spent weeks craving time and space not encroached upon by other human beings. Totally different experiences of the same social earthquake: surely they cannot but profoundly change us for the long term? 

I’m not so sure. Lockdown, then not-lockdown, then lockdown again have served as a reminder of just how adaptable we are as human beings. I was amazed at how quickly the idea of socialising with friends indoors became a fuzzy memory, then the norm, then distant again. The emotions I felt so acutely back in March – the sharp fear Covid could steal my parents, the communal endeavour of clapping for our carers every Thursday night – soon faded into a new normal, impossible to sustain even though many of the realities have barely changed.The pandemic has underlined the extent to which digital interaction is no substitute for the real thing. In some ways, I’m more in touch with people than ever thanks to the numerous WhatsApp groups that revived themselves into a constant source of company. But tapping away in a couple of group chats while absent-mindedly watching the latest Netflix offering doesn’t come close to the wonderful feeling of hugging a friend, or spending three hours giving someone you haven’t seen for ages your undivided attention over a meal, or of having a conversation based not just on words but physical cues. I doubt the pandemic will seed a long-term distaste for crowds; if anything, I suspect that, if all goes well with the vaccine rollout, summer 2021 will see a crop of riotous street parties and carnivals.

Post-Covid Era

This crisis is alarming, in part, because it has several new and unfamiliar features. A global medical emergency caused by a virus we still do not fully understand. A self-inflicted economic catastrophe as a necessary policy response to contain its spread.

And yet as time has passed, it has also become clear that much of what is most distressing about this crisis is not new at all. Striking variations in COVID-19 infections and outcomes appear to reflect existing economic inequalities. Remarkable mismatches between the social value of what “key workers” do and the low wages they receive follow from the familiar failure of the market to value adequately what really matters.

The happy embrace of disinformation and misinformation about the virus was to be expected, given a decade of rising populism and declining faith in experts. And the absence of a properly coordinated international response ought to have come as no surprise, given the celebration of “my country first” global politics in recent years.

The crisis then is a revelation in a far more literal sense—it is focusing our collective attention on the many injustices and weaknesses that already exist in how we live together. If people were blind to these faults before, it is hard not to see them now.

Work and Job Opportunities

"Imagine there’s no commuting, it’s easy if you try", is a popular refrain in discussions of the post-Covid world of work predicting the imminent demise of the office. Sometimes it’s combined with the claim that low-earning hospitality and leisure jobs that have dried up mid-pandemic won’t be coming back and so shouldn’t get support now.

These different predictions are likely to be wrong for the same reason: they pay too much attention to crystal balls, and not enough to rear-view mirrors. Yes, the pandemic itself has meant big changes to the world of work. It has changed where some people (generally higher earners) work while hitting the ability of many lower earners to work at all. But imagining a world without lockdowns is best done by focusing on those pandemic-driven trends that reinforce, rather than run against, patterns visible pre-crisis

Working from home (or living in the office, as it can feel like) has been the big change for everyone. But history warns against the idea that the office is finished. Only one in 20 of us worked entirely remotely pre-crisis. But three times that number worked at home at least one day a week, a trend that was rapidly growing. Hybrid home/office working is the future. But be careful about assuming this transforms Britain’s disgracefully big economic gaps: some will benefit from more choice, may be the ones that end up empty. And remember, we’re only talking about a fraction of the workforce here. Post-Covid, waiters and cleaners won’t be doing their jobs from their spare room or kitchen tab.

Vaccination

First, a vaccine needs to be deployed, and then people need to develop immunity for communities across the world to return back to “normal,” Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief science officer, said during a virtual meeting.

The United Nations General Assembly, taking place between Sept. 15-26, hosted the meeting.

“We’re looking at 2022 at least before enough people start getting the vaccine to build immunity,” she told reporters.“So for a long time to come, we have to maintain the same kind of measures that are currently being put in place.”

Even after the vaccine is first deployed, people will need to maintain social distancing, wear masks and practice hand hygiene, she said. About 60% to 70% of the population needs immunity before virus transmission declines significantly, she added.“We also don’t know how long these vaccines will protect for,” she said. “That’s the other big question mark. How long does immunity last? It’s possible that you will need a booster.”

For now, public health officials are focused on controlling the spread of the coronavirus rather than eliminating it since the transmission has been so broad in communities, she said. At the same time, Swaminathan said she doesn’t see the coronavirus becoming a seasonal virus over time. Instead, she expects “ups and downs” in transmission and new case numbers globally.

The Global Economy

This is especially true of the digital economy, with the rise of digital behavior such as remote working and learning, telemedicine, and delivery services. Other structural changes may also accelerate, including regionalization of supply chains and a further explosion of cross-border data flows.

The future of work has arrived faster, along with its challenges—many of them potentially multiplied—such as income polarization, worker vulnerability, more gig work, and the need for workers to adapt to occupational transitions. This acceleration is the result not only of technological advances but also of new considerations for health and safety, and economies and labor markets will take time to recover and will likely emerge changed.

With the amplification of these trends, the realities of this crisis have triggered reconsideration of several beliefs, with possible effects on long-term choices for the economy and society. These effects range from attitudes about efficiency versus resilience, the future of capitalism, densification of economic activity and living, industrial policy, our approach to problems that affect us all and call for global and collective action—such as pandemics and climate change—to the role of government and institutions.

Over the past two decades, in advanced economies, responsibility has generally shifted from institutions to individuals. Yet health systems are being tested and often found wanting, while benefits from paid sick leave to universal basic income are getting a second look. There is potential for a long-term shift in how institutions support people, through safety nets and a more inclusive social contract.

Normalisation

The global order was in flux well before the COVID-19 crisis. Coronavirus has accelerated three of the key geopolitical trends that will shape our next world order… which will await us on the other side of this pandemic.

The first trend is deglobalization; the logistic difficulties brought to light by the current crisis are already pointing to a shift away from global just-in-time supply chains. Yet as economic difficulties mount, the inevitable growth of nationalism and “my nation first” politics will push companies to localize business operations that favor national and regional supply chains.

The third trend, China’s geopolitical rise, has been more than three decades in the making. But while China has successfully transformed itself into an economic and technological superpower, no one expected it to become a “soft power” superpower. This crisis can change that, if China’s crisis diplomacy continues and the perception endures that Beijing has been far more effective than the rest of the world in its response to the outbreak.

Of course, just because China appears to be faring better doesn’t mean it actually is. There’s a reason people take Chinese numbers with a grain of salt. This general distrust was further fueled by the initial Chinese cover-up of the outbreak, which enabled its global spread. Donald Trump and his administration are leaning into this narrative as an election strategy and to deflect attention from their own handling of the pandemic. China won’t take this lying down, making it increasingly likely that once the world emerges from the current pandemic, we will be plunged into a new cold war, this time between the United States and China.

New world order or not, some things just don’t change.

Fundamental Lessons

The most important lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of working together on problems that affect the entire human race. We are much stronger united than divided.

We are currently in the midst of a worldwide trial that has changed our lives beyond recognition.

It is a challenge on the global level – for the G20, the WHO and other international bodies – since the Coronavirus does not respect national boundaries. But it is just as much a challenge on the national level, where many of the policy decisions in response to the pandemic are made, and at the local levels, where people decide on whether to comply with government guidelines and whether to support one another in times of need. Everyone one of us – from heads of state to ordinary citizens to refugees – bears great responsibility for the health and wellbeing of others.

Billions of people are in lockdown, unable to visit one another, unable go to work, unable to attend school, unable to meet one another in public places. People around the world are in desperate straights, struggling at home, in care homes and intensive care units, dying of the same cause, separated from their loved ones in their hours of need. At times of existential danger, we instinctively desire to be close to our family and friends, hold their hands and embrace them – but now we are forbidden to do so, for every act of physical contact – every expression of physical loving-kindness and compassion – could bring illness and death. We are confronted with the true uncertainty of human existence and the true vulnerability of human life. How often have so many of us believed that we are supreme masters of the world around us.

How often have we as researchers ignored the uncertainty of our existence, mistaking it for probabilities generated by our statistical models? How often have we ignored our vulnerability by pretending that we are in control of our destinies? The Covid-19 pandemic shows us how wrong we were.

We are brought face to face with the most basic questions of life. What are we here for? What have we done with our lives? What do we yet wish to do if given the opportunity? Who is truly important on our lives? What is it that we truly cherish? The pandemic leads us to some painful insights: If we know who is truly important to us and what we truly cherish, then why have we spent so little of our lives pursuing these things?

The Coronavirus shows us how terrible it really is to waste our lives, embroiled in endless battles for wealth and status and power. How terrible it really is not to recognize the value in the people around us – not just our family and friends, not just colleagues and fellow citizens, but also complete strangers. How terrible it is not to give our lives meaning – every hour of every day – by honoring the sacredness of life and according all living things the respect, sensitivity and care that they deserve.