By now, if you say you are not familiar with what Coronavirus or COVID 19 is, then you are not on this planet. Therefore, this pandemic has successfully shut down the whole world in a few months spreading from Wuhan, China down to the uttermost part of the world, despite the sophistications of technology, media and even capability of the health sector. After a few months of forceful lock down – a stay at home order, countries are now considering lifting the lockdown order and looking into how the economy can be reopened.
People are finding a way to return to normalcy, from opening restaurants to resumptions of schools and others getting back to their jobs. The question is can normalcy be restored? This could be a difficult question to answer because things have been amended even by humans due to this pandemic experience. Even if things will eventually be normal, how long will it take? Some of the sectors that will be influenced include the following;
ECONOMY
The pandemic has taken a great toll on the global economy. While countries enforced lockdown to curb the spread of the virus, this measure has jeopardized economic activities.
JOB
As a result of the effect of COVID 19, one of the areas that will bear the loss is the labor market, where some employers will be forced to lay off their employees either permanently or temporarily and some might have to implement salary cuts.
Guy Ryder, the director of International Labour Organization of WHO said and I quote “workers and business are facing catastrophe, in both developed and developing countries”. BBC reported nearly 200 million people could end up out of work as the outbreak is expected to wipe out 6.7 % of working hours across the world during the second quarter of 2020, stating that four out of five people’s jobs have been hit by pandemic.
CNBC noted the following changes to job environments, working in an office could become a status symbol, that is – splitting working from home and from office, Most meetings could be replaced by emails and IM, it could be the end of business travels as we know it, office buildings could become elaborate conference centers, mandatory on-the-job medical screening could become the norm, fashion-ready face masks could become a wardrobe staple, working hours of 9-5 could become thing of the past, among many others.
On the other side, some employees will benefit by becoming employers of labour through the work COVID 19 has provided for them and this will make them not to return to their former jobs.
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS
In one of my stories posted on Aphorism City, I wrote that, for every new solution to a problem, there would always be a rise of another challenge even in that new solution.
This is just, in the case of what the COVID19 pandemic has turned out to be, by leaving churches with no choice other than moving into online worship service. Members now connect from their homes via the internet and in doing so; this makes them keep track of the time at the corner of their devices even when the service is still on.
FAMILY
Finally, talking about family, the impact should be of good rather than harm because it is actually a season to create more bonds where spouses can know each other well, share ideas and have a futuristic goal. Parents tutoring their children could create anxiety, tension in parenting relationships or general fear as schools and daycare are closed. However, the truth is every family is going to be affected differently either negatively, positively or both.
With all these effects of COVID-19, can we still say things will return to normal? Well, only time will tell.
OLUWASEUN AFOLABI
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