COVID-19 affected the health system, education system, production system, foreign trade, social life, and the status quo negatively, and the new normal era will change many attitudes and habits. The pandemic caused the failure of the health system capacity and negatively affected the decent work and economic growth and the fight with the poverty. The pandemic is not a single country's problem anymore; it is a global problem against humanity and human development, which needs a global partnership. As of the end of April 2021, the number of COVID-19-related cases exceeded 150 million, while the number of deaths reached nearly 3.2 million. The vaccination started in December, and more than one billion vaccine doses have been administered all over the world. Whether the vaccine can be accessed by every country will remain another question. This study aims to investigate the negative effects of COVID-19 on SDGs and to analyse the struggle of a rising social nation.
TopIntroduction
COVID-19 has become pandemic in a short time and has spread all over the world affecting the countries negatively in economic, social and political life. Governments and international organizations are taking protective measures to decrease the effect of the pandemic on total economy and households (Gürler and Özsoy, 2021). As Demirbaş and Bozkurt (2020) stated in the introduction of the book, which they edited with their colleague Yorgun, even as science and technology have developed beyond anyone’s imagination to find medicine and vaccine for the pandemic, it not only affected the social and economic lives of societies unexpectedly but also disrupted individuals’ mental health and well-being.
Globally as 23 April 2021, there were nearly 145 million confirmed COVID-19 cases (Figure 1). The deaths due to the COVID-19 has already passed the 3 million all over the world. It is obviously seen in the figure that the pandemic will go on affecting the world for a while. In the confirmed cases data 7-days moving average method was used to smooth the data.
Figure 1.
Global 7-days average confirmed COVID-19 cases (in numbers and natural logarithm)
When the regional breakdown of the COVID-19 related cases and deaths were investigated, Europe has the highest cases with nearly 61.1 million cases, and Americas with 43.9 million cases, Africa with 35.3 million cases, Asia with 4.5 million cases and Oceania with 42.7 thousand cases are following Europe. Americas has the highest deaths with nearly 1.5 million deaths and Europe with 995.9 thousand deaths, Asia with 486.1 thousand deaths, Africa with 119.6 thousand deaths and Oceania with 1,038 deaths are following Americas (Table 1).
Global total cumulative cases per hundred thousand population is 1,857.9 while total cumulative deaths per hundred thousand population is 39.6. On regional breakdown, Europe has the highest cases per hundred thousand population with 8,169.4 cases and Americas with 4,295 cases, Africa with 2,631.6 cases, Oceania with 100.1 cases and Asia with 96.7 cases are following Europe.
On regional breakdown, Americas has the highest deaths per hundred thousand population with 145 deaths and Europe with 133.2 deaths, Asia with 10.5 deaths, Africa with 8.9 deaths and Oceania with 2.4 deaths are following Americas.
According to the share of the regions, Europe has the highest share in COVID-19 related cases with 42.2% and Americas with 30.3% share, Africa with 24.4% share, Asia with 3.1% share and Oceania with 0.03% share are following Europe. Americas has the highest share in COVID-19 related deaths with 48.1% and with Europe 32.3% share, Asia with 15.8% share, Africa with 3.9% share and Oceania with 0.03% share are following Europe.
As Gürler and Özsoy (2021) stated in their study, it seems Asia has started to overcome the effect of the pandemic before than the other regions.
Table 1.
Regional confirmed COVID-19 cases
| Region | Total cases | Total deaths | Total population | Total cumulative cases per 100000 population | Total cumulative deaths per 100000 population | Region's share in total cases (%) | Region's share in total deaths (%) |
| Africa | 35.278.830 | 119.604 | 1.340.598.113 | 2.631,6 | 8,9 | 24.4% | 3.9% |
| Asia | 4.487.054 | 486.120 | 4.641.054.786 | 96,7 | 10,5 | 3.1% | 15.8% |
| Europe | 61.077.185 | 995.899 | 747.636.045 | 8.169,4 | 133,2 | 42.2% | 32.3% |
| Americas | 43.930.132 | 1.483.457 | 1.022.831.976 | 4.295,0 | 145,0 | 30.3% | 48.1% |
| Oceania | 42.709 | 1.038 | 42.677.809 | 100,1 | 2,4 | 0.03% | 0.03% |
| World | 144.815.910 | 3.086.118 | 7.794.798.729 | 1.857,9 | 39,6 | 100.0% | 100.0% |
Source: Our World in Data (2021) and UNDESA (2021a)