Thursday, 28 March, 2024

Life Era of COVID19 Lockdown?


It all started in Wuhan in late 2019 and which is now a global threat and has led to a global health emergency. The Coronavirus has until now affected more than 2,550,000 people across the globe causing around 177,000 casualties. In India there are around 19,984 confirmed cases out of which 3,870 have recovered successfully and 640 have died.

Most of the countries around the globe have declared a lockdown in response to Coronavirus. PM Narendra Modi had announced for a  Janta Curfew on 22nd March 2020 and then the very next day called for a complete lockdown in 75 major districts of India for 21 days, which later got extended for another 19 days, and has been a source of constant chaos and panic for the public in general.

Social distancing, self-isolation, and precautions like washing hands for 20 seconds, using alcohol-based sanitizer, wearing masks, etc. had been repeatedly encouraged to stop the spread of Coronavirus. And yet, the virus has continued to spread around, relatively unperturbed.

The lockdown has affected not only the lives of people in general but has affected the nation as a whole.

WHY IS THE LOCKDOWN NECESSARY?

Lets us first know a little bit about the virus and its transmission.

COVID 19 is a species that belongs to the family of coronaviruses. It has come out to be more contagious than the other coronaviruses like SARS or MERS-CoV. COVID 19 is defined as an illness caused by a novel coronavirus now called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

It is transmitted via respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing, similar to that of influenza or the common cold. The virus is believed to transfer from one patient to another within a range of 1 meter. Studies show that coronavirus can survive for about three hours in the air. It can also spread from contact with infected surfaces or objects.

There is no vaccine or treatment available for coronavirus yet hence avoiding human contact seems to be the only way to stop the spread of the virus. The fewer, the people who come in contact with each other, the lesser the virus spreads. The rationale for this lockdown is to ensure that people with a serious illness can seek medical care, and those who are infectious but asymptomatic or have mild illness don’t pass it further to other people. The main motto of the lockdown was to avoid large scale social gatherings like in movie theatres or shopping malls or markets or for celebrating festivals. Also, the workplaces have been shut down and people have been asked to work from home for the same reasons.

HOW HAS THE LOCKDOWN AFFECTED OUR LIVES?

Well this lockdown has changed many things in our daily routine. It has changed the way we have lived our lives so far, it has changed our very perspective as to how we used to view the world around us.

I found it very difficult to adjust to this new lifestyle where I wasn’t allowed to go out in public places, socialize with people, and stay home all day. It was very difficult in the beginning to adapt to such a lifestyle. I live in Mumbai, the city that never sleeps, or so it’s famed for apparently, people here are always on the run. And it was disheartening to see ‘the city that never stops’ to come to a standstill, as if someone seemed to have hit the pause button.

Like every other college going student, even I enjoyed the initial few days of the freedom I had got from my college; no more sitting for lectures, no submissions for assignments, and no more practicals. Let’s be honest for a moment and agree we all had fun the initial couple of days. The real struggle began when the shops started shutting down when we weren’t allowed to meet your friends anymore, when stepping out of the house became a cognizable crime. Sitting all day at home made me go crazy. I had nothing productive to do all day. All I used to do was wake up at noon, have my lunch, play games on my laptop, watch Netflix and chill, which was fun but then being so unproductive for over a week drove me crazy. I had no schedule for the day and as days passed by it started to affect my mental health; it triggered my anxiety and stress levels, and being an over-thinker, things started to get worse. We all know that an empty mind is a devil’s workshop and my mind had become a warehouse for negative thoughts.

Everyone is trying to cope with this lockdown in their ways. What is helping me improve my mental health during this lockdown is, setting a routine for myself. I started planning my day a night before going to sleep. I started keeping a journal to log my feelings and keep them in track and started rationalizing every negative thought I had and it helped me with my anxiety and kept my stress levels in check.

Other things that helped me with my anxiety were among other things, to regularly meditate for half an hour every day, do home workouts for about 45 minutes, or practice yoga. There are many home workout videos on the internet, which not only helps with anxiety but also helps you be in better shape and keeps your heart healthy. Dancing around and singing also helps sometimes.

My friends and I came up with a plan to keep our days at least 20% occupied. One of us used to plan a task for the day and everyone used to finish it before the given deadline. Let me give you one example: I asked my friends to draw anything they liked or paint an abstract. The next day a friend asked us to learn 6 different kinds of survival knots from the internet.” These fun activities keep us in contact with each other during the lockdown and also help us to be productive rather than just sitting in front of the television all day. Hence, self-care is an important practice to help get through this lockdown.

The lockdown makes me wonder about the situations of the economically backward class people and the daily wage workers and the homeless people. These people do not have food to eat or a roof to live under. The Prime minister is continuously making efforts to help the poor by making food available for them. There are many NGO’s that are supplying food to these people every day. The society I live in has also taken an initiative to pack lunchboxes and as of today we are sending 200 lunchboxes every day.

HOW HAS THE LOCKDOWN AFFECTED THE ECONOMY?

The world economy has dropped and experts say that the global GDP may decline by 2.6% in 2020. The countries that are expected to face the largest contraction are the US (-6.4%), Italy (-7.2%), and the UK (-6.8%). The Indian economy is suspected to contract by 4.5% in 2020 and is expected to recover gradually by 2% in 2021. For the first time after the Great Depression both the advanced economies and the emerging markets and the developing economies are in recession.

HOW HAS THE LOCKDOWN AFFECTED THE NATURE?

This 100-day lockdown has helped Mother Nature to bloom and flourish like it has never had for the past 100 years. Air traffic halved by mid-March as compared to the same time last year. With less human interactions, the planet has calmed. There were dolphins spotted at Marine Drive. Juhu Chowpatty has never been cleaner. The air quality in northern India has improved. People in Punjab could see the Himalayan mountain range now from 100 miles away due to less air pollution.

This proves that pollution is man-made and with proper precautions these can be kept under control. The real question will rise after the lockdown. Will we be able to keep the pollution in check after this ends or people will just go back to the old ways of destroying the planet because lets not forget that before the pandemic the planet was under environmental emergency.

This is my experience with the lockdown and how things have changed for me. Let me know your views and what is helping you to keep going during this lockdown. Stay healthy and stay safe.

Author Name- Dhruvi Atul Gosar

ARPB Blogger ID: ARPBGZ152

31 comments on “Life Era of COVID19 Lockdown?

Prachi

A perfect article explaining what COVID19 is and what everyone is going through at this challenging time. Great job.

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Navya

The ways to cope up with the lockdown were really helpful and it gave me a different perspective!!

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Mrugank Pitale

Very well written. These times are tough but a postive attitude will take us a long way. Glad to have people like you who try and educate people in the best and effective way possible.

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Shubhangi kadam

Too good dhruvi… Very precise and explained in a simple language and matter which is much needed these days.. Keep writing

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Nice and very well described a routine of day to day that we face . A small flash back of the whole scenario and also to be cautious ahead.

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Rishika

Too good…u made us realize the facts and challenges!!!

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Deepak

Meaningful information , Very well written

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Saurabh Gandhi

Thanks for sharing very useful information.

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V S hastak

Great, Dhruvi. Well said and nicely articulated article.

You have echoed my thoughts in how pandemic affected us . Very good

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Navanath Korke

Good job…

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Pooja Sharma

This was such an intriguing read! Great work by Dhruvi

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Aniket Vaidya

I simply couldn’t leave your web site before suggesting that I actually loved the imp info . Off to share

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Tanay Bihani

Very nice. I dont know you eventually . But my dear friend jada gandhi. Means Saurabh gandhi shared me the link. Talking about your views and your article. Madam you have writen quite impressive and really good. The use of words and sentences and the construction of the overall article is really nice and worth appreciating. So, nice to hear your thoughts and sharing your experience about this situation and the lockdown.
I am a convent student studied in the Sacred heart convent school Ahmednagar. So i wonder how people write books and so much about a story or situation. Basically i cant . So i embrace those who do and you have written really nice, elaborating it. So, hope you write more of these and chears once again.

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Dhruvi

Thank you soo much for the support.

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Rucha

Very nice …. people read so many things but don’t get right information… here it is very helpful information…plz read…

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Dayanand Mukund Kannur

Covid has been a real concern and for India atleast lockdown has been a great tool to save the Indians. Fantastic and thought provoking writing. You have researched a lot. Superb summary and as you have rightly sumarized we all need a lot of rework our priorities.

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Your work is amazing.really appreciable. Well done dhruvi.

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yes its true .pollution is man made &because of this lock down many changes can be seen in the environmental situation .We must learn n act to save our earth.I liked this article &believe too.

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Leela Subramanian

Dhruvi , Excellent. You have briefly described. Well done. Keep it up. I feel that this article should reach everybody. Tku so much.

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Raghav Rawat

Very well written. Really appreciate your views on Covid-19. You have covered all the necessary aspects.

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Dr. Shaikh Amir Afzal

You probably have touched on every point about Life Era of COVID19 Lockdown.
I like your point which you elaborate on how to maintain health
What you say is absolutely true, we have to practice regular meditation every day, do home workouts or practice yoga.
These are some important things which will keep our immunity strong and gives us more strength in such pandemic situations.
Very nicely written…..All the best for your future blogs….

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Rituja J

The stress handling is a real thing people need to take up and the major question of the scenario when lockdown ends is something to be pondered upon.
Honestly and statistically written blog. Something people must look upon and think.

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Wazid

The best part was the one plan to deal with anxiety. Its really going to help people.

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Shubh sawatkar

Well.. This blog covers all the major points of given virus.. It really helpful to understand corona virus deeply.. This one blog is great. Thank you for such a grateful information..

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Dimple Jubin Gosar

Well Done Dhruvi,
Well researched about the Corona Virus COVID 19 and Good information for everyone. This virus have effected every country & everyone around the globe. The people, Economy, Nature, life style. We hope that whole world come out of this dangerous virus soon and we find some vaccines to fight against this Virus.

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Sapna

This was an excellent view point towards this situation

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Chetan Jadhav

Informative.

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Pranjali

Very impressive and keen explanation about the current scenario. Very well organised and informative content.
Very well done Dhruvi…

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