EFFECTS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN DAILY LIFE
Corona Virus disease 2019 is a respiratory disease that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome. The common symptoms of corona virus disease include fever, cough,breathing difficulties, and loss of smell and taste. The symptoms begin one to fourteen days after exposure.
In January 2020, WHO declared the outbreak of coronavirus infection, COVID-19, as a public health emergency of worldwide concern (WHO,2020a). This pandemic has left our lives distraught as it has come as a big surprise to some of us and changed what we used to in our daily lives. This pandemic has affected thousands of people, some who are killed and others who are sick due to the spread of the disease. The pandemic has also affected many and more students of Higher Educational Institutions, myself being one of them. Classes were postponed and face to face learning halted due to the pandemic and also due to lockdown. I faced a challenge in virtual learning because majority of the studies had to be done virtually. I was trying to make adjustments to the new norm. Most of the Universities and colleges faced challenges in adjusting to virtual learning (Talidong & Toquero,2020).
The pandemic has also brought about fear and anxiety to our own health and the health of our loved ones. This is due to the risk of exposure because it is a contagious disease. The fear and anxiety has brought about mental changes because it’s hard to cope with living a life of fear.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought changes in sleep and eating patterns. This is due to the lockdown ad nationwide curfew. This led to adjustments in daily activities.
The pandemic has led to low financial states in our daily lives. This has brought a great adjustment as a new source of finance has to be discovered due to the collapse of the previous ones due to Covid-19 effects.
COVID-19 has also led to limited social life; this is due to the fear of contracting the deadly virus. Socializing with friends is no more of face to face meetings but it’s now based on social media. This is becoming a new normal because there was no other communication option.Vissiting of friends and inquiring about their well-being is now made on social media. This has had an impact to daily activities as most time is spent on social media.Thus, the emphasis is majored on precautions such as extensive hygiene protocol like regular washing of hands, avoiding of face to face interarraction, social distancing, and wearing of face masks. Countries are banning social gatherings of people so that the curve can flatten. Many countries are locking their people and enforcing strict quarantine to control the spread of the disease of this highly communicable disease (Haleem,2020).
References
World Health Organization. (2020a, March 18). Mental health and psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19 outbreak. WHO. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/mental-health-considerations.
Talidong, K. J. B., & Toquero, C. M. D. (2020). Philippine teachers’ practices to deal with anxiety amid COVID-19. Journal of Loss and Trauma. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2020.1759225
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., & Vaishya, R. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 pandemic in daily life. Current Medicine Research and Practice, 10(2), 78–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmrp.2020.03.011