Coronavirus disease 19 or the COVID-19 is a clinical disease caused by infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Since December 2019….
The first case of COVID was detected by the WHO on December 31, 2019 from media reports on “pneumonia of unknown causes”. The case was detected in China’s Wuhan.
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Ever since the virus was detected, the entire world has been on its toes. Human intelligence has resorted to lockdowns, isolation, and shutdowns to keep the virus at bay. Vaccinations in multiple doses are being advised to keep the immunity going on. Social life has been hit, normal life has been disrupted and the massive damage this pandemic has caused to important aspects like education and economy goes without saying.
10 days later…
It was after 10 days, the WHO reported that this pneumonia has been caused by a novel coronavirus, which means the existence of the virus was not identified in the past in human beings. It was a new virus. The first WHO meeting on the novel coronavirus outbreak happened on January 10, 2020.
In March, 2020 India went into lockdown
On March 11, it was assessed by the WHO that the outbreak is pandemic in nature. On March 23, 2020, when the COVID death toll in the country was 12, Narendra Modi-led government in India imposed nationwide lockdown for 21 days initially. In a nationwide television broadcast, the PM said that the pandemic posed a huge threat on even countries like the U.S. and Italy, which have good health infrastructure. The lockdown was extended till May 31, 2020.
“Need medicine for my father…”
Immediately after the lockdown was imposed and everything including essential services was shut down, cries of desperation, necessity, separation and loneliness echoed all over the country.
The sudden closure of livelihood rendered many helpless and people, migrant workers especially, were seen walking back to their native places, barefoot, without having anything to eat or drink.
People were seen sending out requests over social media asking for emergency medicines, foods for their family members.
A mother from Rajasthan had requested camel milk for her autistic child.
“Nobody came near us”
In the early 2020 when much was not known about COVID, the infected people were ostracized by the society. There were reports of family members staying alone without food for days, as no neighbor would go near them for the fear of COVID.
Due to strict quarantine rules of 14 days and beyond, people were confined to a single room with no contact with friends and relatives.
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What worsened the situation was lack of information about the infection and the virus. Fake news about the transmission of the virus and the infection peaked during the initial days.
“24 COVID patients die without oxygen in Pune”
When the Delta variant of the coronavirus created havoc in the country during March-April-May, 2021, lack of hospital beds, people gasping for oxygen and deaths due to limited supply of oxygen was reported from all over the country.
The Delta variant, one of the 5 variants of concern of the virus as listed by the WHO, claimed nearly 71% or 2.7 million of the total estimated deaths occurred between April and June in 2021 researchers have found.
Is COVID-19 the worst pandemic ever?
No. It is not. Many experts say it is not the worst pandemic while comparing it to other pandemics mankind has seen in the past. But, in the current time it can be said to be the worst pandemic, virologically. “The COVID-19 pandemic is the third recorded outbreak of a coronavirus, with the 2002 sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS, SARS-CoV-1 or SARS-CoV) and the 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS or MERS-CoV) epidemics preceding it. While these outbreaks are the easiest to directly compare virologically, the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV epidemics did not reach the global scale of COVID-19, for several reasons,” says a research paper published in Maturitas.
So far, 399,600,607 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,757,562 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).