BY: HAMNA HANIF
The coronavirus caused a disease known as COVID-19 that emerged from China in December 2019 and spread around the whole world. The symptoms of COVID-19 include cough, fever or chills, shortness of breath, difficulty in breathing, muscle or body aches, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, diarrhoea, headache, fatigue, nausea or vomiting and congestion or runny nose. COVID-19 can be severe and have caused many deaths. The coronavirus can be spread from person to person. Prevention involves frequent handwashing and use of face masks. To protect from this disease, social distancing and isolation is required otherwise this disease can easily affect the body.
Social distancing means keeping a safe space between yourself and other people who are not from your household. To practice social distancing, you need to stay at least six feet away from other people who are not from your household in both indoor and outdoor spaces. The condition of being isolated is the state of being in a place or situation that is separate from others.
Social distancing and isolation has made both negative and positive effects on people as some people have utilized this time to improve themselves in many aspects like some people have become active physically, many people lost weight, people didn’t get time before to stay physically active and fit. “The current pandemic has really brought fitness and immunity building to the top of the agenda”. — Adarsh Gupta. Nowadays, looking after mental health has become very important as this situation gave people time to look up to their mental health as mental health plays very important role for living a peaceful life. Due to inaccessibility and keeping the side effects of the tobacco in mind, in this coronavirus situation some people have made it possible to quit tobacco. Due to very busy life, parents could not give quality time to their children as isolation inside home managed many parents to provide healthy parenting to their children. Eating healthy had become one of the famous habit in quarantine for many people as before in normal life routine people couldn’t concentrate upon their diet as this helped people to focus upon their diet and many other positive aspects have been given by this situation, unfortunately besides this, other people have made negative effects of isolation upon themselves as they destroyed this time of life by doing nothing productive they may not realize this at this time but they will soon as it is said that “Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” — Oprah Winfrey.
Social distancing and isolation no doubt helped us to avoid contact with coronavirus, people may deny this fact that it is causing some psychological issues which may not be observed clearly but deep down the psychological issues are being developed such as some psychological issues which are being caused by social distancing and isolation are stress, insomnia, emotional exhaustion and substance abuse. Actually both short term and long term mental health problems are being faced in this situation. Living alone in a place where you are isolated or living with certain people for so long is affecting the mental health. “It is extremely important that we acknowledge that this uncertainty is stressful. And in fact, this anxiety is appropriate under the circumstances. This is a normal reaction to our new normal. And I think it’s important that journalists acknowledge this fact. It’s also important that we tell the truth. The situation may get worse before it gets better. But there is a potential to help frame a more positive message: If we work together, we can save lives. And minimizing the uncertainty is disingenuous”. — Ronane Cohen Silver.
This situation has made people not only physically and psychologically changed but also has made more drastic changes on the financial aspects which is one of the saddest part of this ongoing situation many people lost their job especially in developing and under-developed countries. People become more financially weak as the economic system of developing and under-developed countries has also changed drastically, even now if we notice developed countries are also facing difference in their economy. This situation is definitely affecting the psychological and physical situation because at present world everybody has become a machine to make money and upgrade their lifestyle. Unfortunately, students are also facing very difficult time as this ongoing online education situation has not made them able to get exposure with the outside world. This situation has made students of every age sit at home due to which they are facing difficulty in paying finances of their education as well as they are not concentrating upon their studies as they are not being provided by good studying environment. This is another sad part of this situation as the emerging young generation cannot concentrate upon their education and personality build up. Also, some students may feel at this time that this time is for enjoyment and for fun but they will soon realize this also that this time is meant to be focused upon themselves and their education so that they become successful. “…there’s also a lot of inequality in how much, even with households that have connectivity, how often and how regularly students are connecting because the situation in households is quite different. So some households may be able to have a device per student, parents who can help, [but] some may have one device that they share across the family and parents may have to use it for work” —”Vegas said. And when we see at the job opportunities which has become very less nowadays as literate and educated candidates are facing difficulty in finding job, the companies are also facing difficult times so no offence to them also. Especially the educated person who has done so much hard work to get their degree are not being able to find job as only online jobs are available on low cost other than that no office and physical job is available to the degree holders and new opportunities have also not been available in this situation.
No doubt social distancing and isolation is one of the ways which can help us to avoid contact with the coronavirus. As everybody must follow all the SOP’s and concentrate upon everything which is useful for them and not waste their time by doing nothing and seems to enjoy this time and later in their life they regret that they would have done that in that situation and also no doubt this is very difficult to do but it is the demand of this time.