The Changes Covid Made in Our Lifestyles
The first case of Covid was detected in November 2019, and that’s why it is called Covid-19. It had its first outbreak in the Wuhan City of China and cases were reported in December 2019. The first Covid Case outside China was reported in Thailand on 13 January 2020. Thereafter on almost every new day, a new country was reporting their first Covid case. The fatality of Covid is approximately 2-3%, which is quite less than other of some fatal diseases like Cancer, Dengue, etc but all the danger it poses is because of its transmission rate which is quite high. If someone in a home gets infected by Covid, then it is highly likely for others living in the same home, others who were in close proximity, and even people who were visiting the place where Covid infected patients had visited previously to get infected. Because of these reasons, the number of cases started rising exponentially and within a handful of days, millions of people got infected. Thus, the fear is not just of getting dangers of infection but more of its highly contagious nature.
Now to stop it from spreading, there were only a few options available like going out only and only for necessary work and use of masks, sanitizers, PPE kits, etc, and waiting for vaccines to arrive. Nobody knew how long would it take for the vaccines to get developed and reach them, and on the other hand the cases were rising exponentially. So here came the sacrifice of going out of the homes. Many of the tasks which needed to get completed had to be completed from home. Thus within a few weeks of lockdowns, a new world started in the small devices like laptops and mobile phones, a virtual world indeed!
The schools and colleges were now shifted to various platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft teams, etc. Offices were switched to Work-From-Home mode. But what about the things that couldn’t be done online like Hospitals, Salons, etc. These had to stay open and people couldn’t help themselves not going out. But going out meant following all the necessary steps and taking precautions to avoid the spread of infection. The picture below shows a typical post-Covid scene from a Chemist’s shop. Here the sick person had felt dizziness and was diagnosed with low Haemoglobin. And the Chemist was himself more than 60 years old. He could not afford to stay at home despite the government guidelines which puts it mandatory for people with more than 60 years of age to stay at home as he was the only earning member of the family. Also, can we imagine the sick person ordering prescribed medicines online? Although it is a mild case of hemoglobin drop, imagine severe cases in its place. So it’s much necessary to keep the Chemist shop open and Hospitals open.
Shot on: Realme X phone, snipped by Windows Snipping Tool [Due to large size]
But wait there are people who cannot afford their food. If they don’t work one time, they cannot eat food the other time. How can these people afford things like sanitizers, PPE kits, and masks? Again there are people who do not follow basic hygiene practices, how can they wear masks which feel so suffocating when they know that no one knows how long would it take to return to normal. Masses do not have patience.
Shot on: Moto G5
In the picture above, we can see the fruit buyers in a fruit market wearing the masks, but apart from these two ladies no one is seen to wear masks. If we watch the woman on the right closely, we can see that she is not wearing mask in a proper manner. Thus it leaves us with a question mark whether are we even ready to shift to the regular lifestyle with precautionary measures?
Shot on: Moto G5
As we had discussed earlier, there are some of the things which cannot be shifted to our virtual world. Among these are the vegetable and fruit market. In the picture above there are fruits and vegetables kept open.
According to WHO, the respiratory droplets of an infected person may contain strains of the virus, which can stay alive upto 72 hours on some surfaces. Again a question mark comes to us on whether are we really ready to adapt the lifestyle beyond the virtual world.
