Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is a contagious disease induced by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2). The first case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It has since spread worldwide and became a pandemic in March 2020. Added to this, is the emergence of a mutant SARS-COVID-2-viral strain (B.1.1.7) in the UK in December 2020 and B1.526 in March 2021. COVID-19, is spread between people during close contact via small droplets, produced by coughing, sneezing, talking and singing. It’s also airborne, requiring particulate matter for transmission. A person can become symptomatic or remain asymptomatic. COVID-19 can be prevented by social distancing and the wearing of cloth face masks, surgical masks, respirators, or other face coverings to control droplet transmission. Even though a vaccine, manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna and approved by FDA, is now commercial. The entire world awaits widespread inoculation. COVID-19 has affected humanity in many facets: health, socially, economically and in education. In health, tremendous burden has been placed to save patients life as the number of mortality and morbidity cases increases across the globe. To date, 89,603,838 million cases have been reported with over 1,926,228 deaths with 49,708,126 recovered cases. The economy of every country has been affected, as there have been severe job cuts, lockdown, decrease in world trade, border shut down etc. Production and productivity have significantly fallen across the globe in every sector. In the education sector, many universities, primary and secondary schools around the globe have resorted to online teaching, as opposed to “Face to Face” teachings. While this, to a large extent, is effective at the University level, it’s not so at primary and secondary schools. COVID-19 has dramatically changed the social fabric of societies around the globe. Social gathering is prohibited, as denounced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC). Many restaurants and other business places have been operating within the curfew periods. Church gathering have also been prohibited. At the moment, we must adhere to protocol enacted by WHO and CDC, whilst we await the confirmatory use of the vaccine.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-COV-2; Health; Social; Economic; Health sector