Introduction
The aim of the research paper is to examine the impact of Covid-19 on the lives of people and different industries. Covid-19 has been one pandemic in the world which had led to enormous loss of life and challenges for people across the world. There are challenges across various verticals developed because of this pandemic, including health, food systems and work systems (Xiong et al. 2020). This caused widespread disruption of society and economy leading to the deaths of tens of millions of people across the world who have developed the risk of poverty. Although the pandemic is controlled in most parts of the world, it is still not vanished completely, and countries are battling with it.
To cope with the impact of the pandemic and prioritize the safety of the people, governments across the world put lockdowns. These lockdowns restricted the movement of the people for anything outside their home and even borders were closed for any air travel. People lost their jobs during and after the pandemic as enterprises experienced huge losses because of no work at all.
During this pandemic, frontline workers and health workers have played the most significant part. The health workers have worked 24x7 even during the lockdowns to care for the patients suffering from Covid-19 and ensuring that they could save as many people as possible from this pandemic.
Impact of Covid-19
The impact of the pandemic has been spread across various sectors. Research has shown that millions of enterprises across the globe faced a lot of financial problems and as much as 3.3 billion workers lost their jobs during the pandemic (Xiong et al. 2020). This led to problems for the people and the inability to earn during the Covid-19 developed extreme poverty. The official website of WHO has mentioned that the pandemic has influenced the food system. Due to border closures and trade restrictions, international and national food supply chains have been influenced. The pandemic led to the loss of jobs and created a problem for millions of people across the world. Due to the loss of jobs, the food and nutrition of women and men came under threat and led to widespread deaths. Pandemic has influenced every sector including airlines, tourism, hospitality, retail, wholesale, IT, education, etc.
Research has shown that the impact of Covid-19 is not restricted to one group but extended to every group including children, college students, middle-class people, health workers, poor people etc. (Xiong et al. 2020). Every group has suffered from stress, depression and distress. As the governments took steps such as social distancing and lockdowns, but this influenced the psychology of the people.
As far as the tourism industry is concerned, it is majorly hit due to travel restrictions across the world. During the pandemic, people could not travel due to which airlines had no operations, and this led to the loss of jobs for direct and direct employees. In the hospitality industry, as people were confined to their homes, so it shut hotels. This again led to the loss of jobs for the employees. In the IT sector, people were forced to work from home, but most companies did not adapt well to the model. This again led to financial loss for the companies (Kramer, Brown& Kopar, 2020). So almost every industry has suffered during the pandemic. Even after the lockdowns have been taken up by the Governments, people are still scared to travel and stick to necessary travel due to which sectors like hospitality and tourism have been suffering still. There is a need for the governments to assist these sectors, cope with their losses and provide them relaxations so that these can operate their business effectively.
Steps were taken to cope with Covid-19
Different countries took distinct steps to cope with the impact of Covid-19. Every Government ensured it could respond to the challenges in the best way so that they can provide full help to their citizens and provide them better situation (He& Harris, 2020). Governments have created an awareness among the people about social distancing and also maintaining their cleanliness so that they could prevent themselves from getting this disease. Even today when the pandemic seems regulated, governments across the world have been encouraging their residents to practice social distancing and even take precautions to ensure that they do not get prey to this pandemic. The countries ensured they make strategies to deal with this crisis and even help each other during this tough situation (He& Harris, 2020). Many countries such as Canada offered support for their citizens by offering financial help to its residents, international students, and even guided the financial insinuations to stop the EMI payments on different loan products from its citizens (Kramer, Brown& Kopar, 2020). In countries like India, the Government offered a deferment of EMIs on loan products, free ration for the poor people, relaxation in school and college fees and much more.
Conclusion and Recommendations
It can be concluded that the challenges of Covid-19 have been over yet. It is prime time for all the countries to extend their support towards each other and prioritize the health of their citizens. They need to provide help in the best possible way for their people. There is a need to give priority to address challenges such as food insecurity, malnutrition, poverty, unemployment and social protection for the people. As there is a constant endeavour made to develop vaccine across the world, so the Governments have to play a major role until the vaccines are developed and given to the citizens. However, there is a need to create awareness among the people such that they can take measures to protect themselves and their family. In public places, governments have ensured to take precautions, so that there is no risk of spreading this disease. Enterprises have to ensure that there are social distancing and other measures taken for the safety of their workers.