Article Preview
TopIntroduction
Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is the name given by the World Health Organization (WHO) on February 11, 2020for the disease caused by the novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Li et al., 2020; Dong et al., 2020; Law et al., 2020; Hamid et al., 2020). This virus started its pandemic with strange new pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, Hubei province of China (Hui et al, 2020) on December 31, 2019 (WHO, 2020; Sarkodie & Owusu, 2020; Shi et al., 2020). It was found to be caused by new Coronavirus which was given the name “2019 novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov). This virus severe respiratory disease and even death to humans due to the combination of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The typical clinical symptoms of COVID-19 include high fever, cough, sore, throat, headache, fatigue, muscle pain, and shortness of breath (Kailas KhanduSanap and Sanap,2020; Wang et al., 2020; Hagerty &Williams, 2020; Asadi-Pooya&Simani, 2020; Rothan&Byrareddy, 2020). The first seven cases were reported on January 20, 2020 in the United States of America, and by the month of April 2020, it crossed over 300,000 cases (CDC, 2020).
As of 9 May 2020, more than 3.93 million cases of COVID-19 have reported in over 187 countries and territories, resulting in more than 274,000 deaths (WHO, 2020). The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in India was reported on 30 January 2020, which originated from China. As of 9 May 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has confirmed a total of 59,662 cases and 17,847 recoveries and 1,981 deaths in India (Mohfw, 2020). The Infection rate of COVID-19 in India is reported to be 1.7, significantly lower in the worst affected countries such as Germany, Italy, and the United States of America, etc.
Figure 1 shows the detailed report collected on May 9, 2020 (Active, Confirmed, Recovered, and Deceased) on individual states of India where the states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan have greater reported cases than the other states (Covid19ind, 2020; ICMR, 2020). In addition, those states also have fast recovery cases. As a preventive measure to control this COVID-19 pandemic, the Central and State Governments of India has taken regulatory steps as follows:
- •
On 19 March 2020, various states of India has announced the closure of restaurants, hotels, sweet shops, etc and ban on eating in restaurants as this may increase the COVID-19 pandemic.
- •
On 16 March 2020, the Government declared a countrywide lockdown of schools and colleges and in many of the states, the state Governments has canceled the examinations for primary and secondary class and promoted the students to next classes.
- •
On 2 March 2020, the BSE SENSEX has witnessed a crash flash due to confirmation of new COVID-19 cases by the department of Union Health Ministry.
- •
On 12 March 2020, Indian Stock markets suffered their worst crash after WHO’s declaration of the pandemic outbreak.
- •
During the second week of March 2020 all the state governments have announced a complete shutdown of Malls, cinema theatres, entertainment parks, and its related shooting, editing, and other activities.
- •
On 17 March 2020, historical buildings such as the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Qutub Minar,etc and all the National Monuments and Museums of Archaeological department of India were closed for public people visits.
- •
On the same day, all the Religious temples, Mosques, churches were requested to close till further notice for thevisit of the people.
- •
The private Flights cancelled all the domestic and international travels starting from March 18, 2020. On 19 March 2020, the Government of India announced that no international flights will be allowed to land in India from 22March 2020.
- •
On 23 March 2020, all the domestic flights were canceled by the state governments.
- •
From 14 March 2020, the Indian railway has drastically canceled the rail transport. Initially, the Air-Conditioner compartments were removed as it spreads the COVID-19 more. Then the platform tickets rates are increased from Rs. 10 to Rs. 50. Finally, all the rail transports are completely canceled from 21 March 2020.
- •
Similarly, other public transports which include buses, auto-rickshaws, tempos, Metro trains, and others are ban to use for public transportation from 21 March 2020.