Essay Sample on Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown

Introduction

COVID-19 made its arrival first in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan in China. What started as a strange and mysterious fever soon spread to most parts of the globe. Each day new cases of COVID-19 infections were getting reported. Death tolls from the virus also started increasing fast. As a result, most governments in whose countries the virus had arrived, together with those who still had not experienced the virus, had to take drastic measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The major ways in which the virus mostly spreads are through contact with an infected person, and also sharing close spaces with an infected person.

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Hence, the most effective way to prevent the disease would be to make sure people stay distant so as not to get infected. Therefore, most countries imposed a lockdown measure for their residents. This meant that all the residents were expected to either stay at their homes or localities. The movement of people was severely banned unless for the providers of essential service providers. This move was aimed at reducing the rate at which COVID-19 was spreading. However, this measure came along with its negative effects. There have been various disadvantages of the lockdown measures.

Discussion

To begin with, the sector that was greatest affected by the lockdown is the economy. The economy of most countries had been ravaged by the lockdown measure imposed. This is because it has not been possible for most businesses to thrive. In China, especially, most small scale business people have had their businesses shrink or even close down. Most of those who had invested in various businesses suffered great losses. China is an industrious country, with a large percentage of its workers working in factories and industries. Imposing the lockdown measure meant that most of these workers were left jobless and stranded. Even the few businesses that were left operational are not able to sustain their operations since their capital turnover is not sufficient to keep the businesses up and running. An effect on the economy means a direct effect on the livelihoods of people. Most people cannot operate conveniently without money, and they cannot have money without working. In this way, the lockdown has had a negative impact.

The other way in which the lockdown has had a negative impact is declined health among residents of a country. Due to lockdown and quarantine measures, movement was greatly hindered and restricted by governments. As a result, it was difficult for most people to gain access to medication. This applies even to those with terminal illnesses and needs regular medication. Also, mental health has deteriorated among people. This is because most of the mental service access points have either been locked down or made inaccessible. Hence those in need of monitoring and observation on matters of mental health are left without any care and their mental health does not improve. Also, most of the mental health workers lost their jobs during the pandemic as workers got laid off. Therefore, there was no sufficient number of workers to tend to the patients.

Conclusion

The lockdown was imposed in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, as it turned out, it has had a lot of negative impacts. The economy has been severely affected. The health sector has also been affected as well as most of the other sectors. Hence, it is evident that the lockdown has had more negative effects than benefits.