There will be hardly anyone in the world today who may have not heard of the deadly corona virus, an epidemic which has taken over the entire world in its grip. The scare of this deadly epidemic has grown so big that it has already hit economies of many countries across the globe and mainly of China, the epicentre of the disease. People around the world are scared because so far, there is no cure found for this virus and it can spread through contamination and infection from one person to other. The currently spread Covid-19 virus is a member of Corona virus family which was never encountered before. Like any other corona viruses, it comes from animals. Many of those who got infected with it first were the people who were working or shopping frequently in the meat markets. In the current scenario, the origin of this epidemic is the animal and sea food market in the Wuhan city in China where this outbreak took place.

It has slowly spread into most of the Asia pacific nations like Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Macau. The initial symptoms in any patient are cough or fever or shortness of breath. Since its infectious, hence the infected person is expected to be confined to an isolated area. This virous is spreading very fast all over the world because of thousands of people travelling to and now going out from China and some of them unsuspectedly carrying the virus with them. So far, it has spread in over 28 countries outside China, where patients have been confirmed with the infection but WHO has declared it a worldwide epidemic. It has already taken lives of over 1600 people so far in China alone, with another tens of thousands infected with it. Some deaths have been recorded in other countries outside China also.

While the wellbeing and good health of its people may be a cause of concern for any country of the world, the economic repercussions of this outbreak have already started showing in many countries including in New Zealand. According to sources in hospitality and tourism industry, in New Zealand for last several weeks they are losing business to the tune of 50 million per day in the country. This is a very significant loss for a small country like New Zealand. World’s second largest economy China is also under lot of pressure due to this epidemic and has lost business to the tune of several billion dollars since the outbreak of coronavirus. People are now scared to go to China or to do business with China due to the scare of this virus. Chinese authorities are taking all possible and extreme measures like China’s central bank doing the deep cleaning of its currency (notes and coins) as it changes hands multiple times in a day and even destroying the cash in some cases in an effort to contain the virus. It is still unknown exactly how long this virus can linger on contaminated surfaces and objects with the potential of infecting people.

As per the information available about this virus, coronaviruses are a large group of viruses common among animals. In some rare cases, they are what scientists call zoonotic, which means this virus can be transmitted from animals to humans, according to the US Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention.

Rumours and scaremongering are more dangerous than any virus for humans. People need to be more informed & educated about this disease and its symptoms. Due precautions should be taken by all about hygiene and cleanliness. If any person is noticed with symptoms like corona virus, it needs to be notified straight away to health authorities. Generally, coronavirus appears to be hitting older people the hardest and in some cases in children also. So, to stay healthy keep yourself stress free and only eat clean and heathy food to keep any disease at bay.

-Yugal Parashar