By Nantoo Banerjee
Few will shed tears to sing the dirge of the dying year, 2020. It was a year of fear, the fear of a pandemic the like of which the world never experienced. Covid-19 sent the world into a big death trap and depression. Will the New Year be different? As for now, there is little sign of a strong recovery. The scare of a more deadly mutant Wuhan virus has spoilt the cherished Christmas in the United Kingdom. “Over the last few days, thanks to our world-class genomic capability, we have identified a new variant of the coronavirus, which may be associated with the faster spread in the South of England,” UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons on December 14. The UK has already notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the variant. Europe and the rest of the world are worried
Several countries, including India, have suspended travel from Britain until the New Year. Medical scientists and researchers strongly doubt the capability of vaccines to control the new virus variant. The pandemic had hit the world hard though largely sparing China, the controversial source of the virus origin, in terms of the number of people attacked and dead. Reportedly, China even showed a modest economic growth of over three percent in 2020. However, if the spread of the new variant is not controlled, it will mean a fresh economic disaster for countries in 2021. The year has proved to be one of the deadliest times to be alive. From locust swarms, earthquakes, floods, landslides, and of course the Coronavirus, the year 2020 has kept everyone at the edge of their seats, waiting for what is to come next.
Going by the current trend, global Corona virus cases at the end of 2020 would cross the 100-million mark and the number of deaths could be close to two million. The list of top 10 countries with most number of virus related deaths names the United States as No.1, followed by Brazil, India, Mexico, the UK, Italy, France, Iran, Spain and Russia. Among the Asian countries hit hard by the pandemic are: India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal, Iran, the UAE, Oman, Kazakhstan and Armenia. The good news for India is that infections and deaths due to Covid-19 are dropping 14 weeks after the pandemic had peaked. The cases in the third week of December registered a 17.30 percent decline over the previous week, making it the steepest weekly drop so far in percentage terms. The cases, however, rose again in the last week.
The number of active cases per million in India is 223. In comparison, the US has 21,612 active cases per million population and Russia 3,513 per million, listed the union health ministry’s data. Sadly, thousands of health workers across the world died of coronavirus infection while trying to save others. It is a crisis on a staggering scale. “Every health worker has the right to be safe at work, and it is a scandal that so many are paying the ultimate price,” said Steve Cockburn, Head of Economic and Social Justice at Amnesty International. Many months into the pandemic, health workers are still dying at horrific rates in countries such as Mexico, Brazil and the USA.
India’s economic growth suffered its worst fall on record in the first quarter of the current financial year with GDP contracting 23.9 percent. Correspondingly, double-digit GDP contraction reported during the period by other economies included the UK (21.7 percent), France (18.9 percent), Canada (13 percent), Germany (11.3 percent) and Japan (10 percent). Barring China, the world’s second largest economy, all major economies witnessed the negative impact of the pandemic.
According to Swiss Re, one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance and insurance, Covid-19 pandemic is likely to put a $12-trillion hole in the global economic output by the end of next year, a burden far too high for insurers to cover. Said Chief Executive Christian Mumenthaler: “Pandemic, and that’s known by the insurance industry, is not a risk you can cover. We think the output loss for the world over these two years will be $12 trillion. And the balance sheet of insurers are a tiny fraction of that. So a pandemic is a risk that cannot be diversified and therefore it cannot be insured.”
In December 2019, the first Coronavirus case was identified in China’s Wuhan. Initially, it was not considered deadly. At that time, few could imagine the kind of impact this virus would have globally. China recorded the first death on January 11, 2020 and subsequently two months later, on March 11, WHO declared the virus to be a world-wide pandemic. Interestingly, many market players hedged early, figuring the COVID-19 respiratory disease might soon spread around the world.
While the pandemic continues to create panic around the world, the year 2020 would also be remembered for high incidence of terrorist attacks and China’s expansionist actions along its western and southern borders. The year witnessed at least 50 major terror strikes across the globe. Not a month passed when some country or the order did not witness mass shooting, suicide bombing, drone and missile attacks, stabbing, kidnapping, ambushing, massacre, looting and beheading. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, flush floods, forest fires, volcano eruptions and cyclones too killed and displaced thousands.
India witnessed the worst pest attack in the last two decades. Several states, including Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh suffered locust attacks. Cyclone Amphan, classified as one of the most powerful and deadly tropical cyclones, ravaged parts of India and Bangladesh. Forest fires at Uttarakhand engulfed some 51 hectares of Himalayan forest land. Flush floods in Assam ravaged 128 villages and five districts. However, none of these natural disasters and terror strikes could match the damage to life and economy being caused by the pandemic. The panic continues to pervade. (IPA Service)