The impact of Coronavirus Disease
Recently, there is a horrible disease continually invading the whole world, which is so-called coronavirus disease or COVID-19. At the end of 2019, this disease broke out in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province of China. This type of disease can cause symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath. Besides, coronavirus disease is a strong epidemic illness, spreading from person to person via secretions or droplets. Over 900,000 people are confirmed cases, and the death tolls are up to 40,000. Because of coronavirus disease, national policies, individual plans, and industries are changed and interrupted.
National Policies
Since numerous people are infected with and died of this disease, the global governments have to add and change the policy. According to CNN’s titles, “Life under coronavirus lockdown: Anxiety and empty shelves as Wuhan residents prepare for long wait.” “All of Italy is in lockdown as coronavirus cases rise.” These headlines reflect the recent situation within Wuhan and Italy. Closing the border is the method for governments to implement the corresponding policy for coronavirus disease. In order to decrease the infected probability, all transportations such as buses, subways, and airplanes are out of service. Citizens barely go outside and all the stocks in the supermarkets are sold out. In this circumstance, Wuhan and Italy become the big empty city. In addition, Taiwan Centers for Diseases Control (2020) has divided other countries into three levels for the purpose of preventing people from going to high-risk countries. The third level indicates the countries of the highest risks. The government suggests that people should avoid all non-essential travel to these destinations, including China, Hong Kong and Korea, etc. The global governments are trying their best to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Individual Plans
Not only do governments change the policy to contain the disease, but also people are influenced by the present situation. During this period, there is a familiar scene coming into view that people wearing masks are lining up outside the drugstore to buy masks. In order to prevent transmitting through droplets, people by all means get masks. People urge to stockpile masks so that they are out of supply. Thus, the government implements the new policy that citizens purchase surgical masks with an insurance card. In this situation, it may take an hour or even more hours for people to receive masks. This policy causes a slight change for people’s lives. On the other hand, our personal plans are inevitably interrupted by coronavirus disease. Since public gatherings have been banned, lots of events and activities are postponed or cancelled. For instance, numerous sports games are suspended or put off such as NBA, NHL, and MLS. Furthermore, the most anticipated events, Olympic held in Tokyo, is postponed to the end of the year. Influenced by the coronavirus disease, our individual schedules and advance plans are seriously interrupted.
Industries
Since CIVID-19 spreads to the whole world, industries are largely infected such as tourism and manufacture. For instances, during the winter vacation, tourist attractions were supposed to be packed with people. Afraid of infected, people avoid going to the crowded place. Therefore, the business of tourism and stores have a massively impact. According to The World Travel and Tourism Council (2020), up to 50 million jobs will be lost and tourism industry in 2020 will shrink by up to 25%. Furthermore, thousands of international flights are cancelled, and some tourist attractions are closed to keep visitors and employees safe. For example, Tokyo Disney shut the two theme parks down until the end of April. Beyond tourism industry, electronic industries are also influenced. Since China is the largest producers of supply chain industry, a majority of electronic industries have to rely on companies of China. Due to the outbreak of the disease, China’s products are out of stock and global electronic industries take a hit. As a result, global industries are threatened with this phenomenon.
Up until now, the confirmed cases are still increasing sharply. The effects of coronavirus disease continually have a huge impact on us. Due to the growth of confirmed cases, the governments have to lockdown the city. Since severe viruses spread the globe, people are forced to cancel or postpone their original schedules and their personal daily lives are interrupted. Besides, tourism and manufacturing industries take a serious hit. To control the epidemic, the global governments take their responsibilities to implement the precaution policies. Also, the medical personnel are on the front lines to care for patients. The most effective and direct way is that people should avoid going abroad and to the crowded places. There is no accurate time when the disease can be ebbing. Global citizens have to follow the government’s policy and to do the personal precaution measure in order to fight the coronavirus disease.
References
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Taiwan Centers for Diseases Control (2020) Attention coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov.tw/En/Category/ListContent/bg0g_VU_Ysrgkes_KRUDgQ?uaid=0nAzwpXdBNIAPOvJhwrGoQ
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Valentina Di Donato, Emma Reynolds and Rob Picheta, CNN, (2020), All of Italy is in lockdown as coronavirus cases. Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/09/europe/coronavirus-italy-lockdown- intl/index.html
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Ben Westcott and Lily Lee, CNN (2020), 3. Life under coronavirus lockdown: Anxiety and empty shelves as Wuhan residents prepare for long wait Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/08/asia/wuhan-coronavirus-lockdown-life-intl-hnk/index.html
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The World Travel and Tourism Council (2020), Corona virus affecting the tourism industry worldwide Retrieved from: https://www.traveldailynews.com/post/corona-virus-affecting-the-tourism-industry-worldwide
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BBC (2020) 流感和新冠病毒疫情:人們擔心的是什麼 (picture1)Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/world-51485377
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林晨 (2020) 網拍「封城市景」鬧區變空城:這不是電影!Retrieved from: https://www.ctwant.com/article/34474 (picture2)
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Holly Secon(2020) People are racing to buy face masks amid the coronavirus outbreak, but they probably won't protect you from illness (picture3) Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-face-masks-not-entirely-effective-2020-1
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Michelle Toh, CNN(2020) Disney could take a $280 million hit from its Chinese parks because of the coronavirus and protests (picture4) Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/05/business/disney-shanghai-hong-kong-parks-coronavirus/index.html