Life During Coronavirus Times: Changes & Effects

Life During Coronavirus Times: In the last few weeks, if you’ve been living in a metropolitan city in India, you might have noticed several changes. A lot of usual day-to-day activities that you used to easily perform in previous months, might not be accessible to you now. For example, going out for dining with friends, attending the gym, relaxing at parks, partying, etc.

The reason behind all these changes is the pandemic coronavirus, an infectious disease caused by a new virus, that was originally found in China, and which later spread throughout the world. As of 22nd March 2020, this virus has affected over 340,000 people worldwide and resulted in the death of over 14,000 people. Here’s a live counter of coronavirus pandemic with real-time counts and world news:

As Coronavirus disease spreads primarily through contact with an infected person (when they cough or sneeze) and its vaccine has not been found yet, the government has taken various steps to tackle the situation and to limit its spread. In this post, we are going to discuss such changes that have already been made in India and its effects in the short and long-term. Let’s get started.

Changes Made to Tackle Coronavirus

Here are a few of the big and necessary changes that the government and the Indian population have implemented to fight back with coronavirus. Although these changes are temporary, however, they may last even for months:

1. Social Distancing

Although not a new concept, nonetheless, a lot many people are not familiar with social distancing. It is a set of non-pharmaceutical infection control actions intended to stop or slow down the spread of a contagious disease.

As this virus is contagious and spread by touch or when people come in contact, it is suggested to maintain a minimum distance of 1 m (or 3 ft) with others and not to indulge in groups bigger than five. Social/Physical distancing is the most common change seen in this coronavirus days.

2. Work from Home

A lot many corporate employees are mandatorily offered work from home for a sustained longer period for the first time in their career. Almost all big and small companies in the metropolitan cities have now given work from home to their employees. Although this might have resulted in lower productivity. However, work from home means less physical interaction, less traveling and minimal spread of the virus among colleagues at the workplace.

3. Lock-down/Curfew

After the success of ‘Janata Curfew’ started by PM Narendra Modi on 22nd March 2020, over 75 districts in India have now imposed a complete lock-down. As a lock-down is the only noticeable successful strategy that been followed by other big countries infected by the coronavirus, Indian states have also started implementing a similar lock-down/curfew strategy.

4. Travel Ban/Restrictions

As of 22nd March 2020, all the international flights are banned. Moreover, on the same day, Indian Railways also announced to cancel all passenger trains, and reduce suburban trains. By passenger trains, the ministry of railways means all mail, express trains, suburban trains, passenger trains, Kolkata Metro Rail, Konkan Railways, etc.

Effects of Coronavirus Spread

If the spread of coronavirus is not contained, the number of cases and casualties in India is expected to increase in the upcoming weeks. The total number of affected cases has already crossed +400 in India. The above-mentioned changes may help to fight back the virus. Nonetheless, here is a few common effects that may be noticed among the people because of coronavirus changes:

1. Dealing with Fear, Social (& Mental) Anxiety

Fear and anxiety are quite common during a pandemic. As the number of cases with coronavirus casualties in India will increase, it may increase the fear and anxiety among the population.

2. Personal cleanliness & hygiene

To control the spread of this contagious virus, washing hands frequently and cleanliness are a few of the key steps. Indians have now started taking care of their hygiene and cleanliness.

3. New kind of patriotism

Because of different changes made in the country like International travel ban, lock-down, and country first approach, it is expected to see a rise of new kind of patriotism among people. During Janata Curfew (22nd March 2020), we’ve already seen how the people of India appreciated the work done by Doctors, and servicemen by banging thalis, ringing bells and clapping hands for five minutes at 5 pm.

Financial and economical Effects

Now, let us talk about the stock market, finance and economy. How coronavirus days may impact us financially and economically:

1. Continued Bear Market

During the coronavirus days, the share prices and market have already witnessed a sharp crash. Within less than one month, all the major market indexes have fallen over 30%. Nonetheless, it is expected that the market will continue to run in a bear market for a continued longer duration. This is because the aftermath of this pandemic virus will take a lot more time to make things normal, both in the personal and professional lives of people.

2. Pay-cut or lay-offs

Due to the spread of the virus, a lot of companies are not able to perform well and their revenues are continuously tanking. And in order to avoid bankruptcy or financial stress, these companies may have to cut salaries, delay new hirings or even lay-off some employees. Moreover, the lay-off scenario may be worse in some highly affected industries like travel, tourism, hotels, airlines, bars, malls, etc that are heavily affected by the lockdown.

3. Rise of online businesses

Although the market and economy are continuously falling during the coronavirus days, however, there may be a silver lining for a few sectors during this time. A few industries like online learning (Byju’s, Unacademy, etc), online payment (Phonepe, Paytm), Online Grocery (Bigbasket, Amazon), E-commerce, etc are performing quite well as people are opting for their product/services from their homes. These industries are expected to boom during the coronavirus days.

Also read: Coronavirus- How it Infected Stock Market & Indian Economy!

Closing Thoughts

In this post, we tried to discuss a few common changes and their effects in India during the coronavirus days. Nonetheless, these are just assumptions and it might be a little early to say what will exactly happen.

The next two weeks are quite crucial for India in its fight towards coronavirus and they may be the deciding factor. In these times, how the government of India and its people handles the situation will play a major role among the changes, effects, and aftermath that we may see in the future. Take Care and till next time…!