Covid-19 – is there any good news?

Covid-19 – is there any good news?

The World health Organisations says this is a controllable pandemic. Everyone has it in their power to reduce transmission through sanitising, wearing masks, reducing social contact, elbow bumping instead of shaking hands and self-isolating at the first sign of symptoms.

Moreover, it has generated a global community response to a common cause – international researchers are racing to create a vaccine – and some have joined forces, collaborating across borders for the greater good.

A global community of students, scientists, developers and health professionals are using online biology forums to help investigate potential vaccines and innovative methods of testing.

In the past 2 weeks, the number of cases in South Korea have shown a sharp decline with voluntary social distancing being practiced nationwide. The government advised people to wear masks, wash their hands, avoid crowds and meetings, work remotely, and to join online religious services instead of going to churches. Those with fevers or respiratory illnesses are urged to stay home and watch their symptoms for 3 to 4 days.

Tech

Around the world, technology is providing agile business alternatives for those who are working from home.

Google is a keeping any misinformation apps from appearing on the Play Store. It is keeping extensive Knowledge Panels with information on the virus pinned to the top of search results related to COVID-19, and is planning to launch a website in partnership with the US government that offers extensive information on the illness as well as local health resources. It is also pledged to match donations amounting up to $7.5 million to benefit the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

Microsoft has launched a coronavirus tracker on Bing that links to relevant local information in each country.

To monitor the virus in real time, you can monitor its global trajectory on the app Worldometer.

– Despite the Wall St crash, some industries are actually booming:

 

Personal hygiene companies

Products like hand sanitiser, soap, and every imaginable version of a face mask including the re-usable ones are crucial during the coronavirus national disaster and they are flying off the shelves. For some reason this also has included toilet paper.

Moreover, despite the high demand, many retailers are not profiting from price increases.

 

Online entertainment

According to industry analysts, In the middle of fears over a global economic slowdown, companies like Netflix, dstv and OvHD that provide in-home services are best positioned to withstand the storm or even see an upside from the crisis,.

 

Delivery companies

Amazon plans to hire 100,000 more workers and give raises to current staff to deal with coronavirus demands.

To assist the beleaguered restaurant industry, Uber Eats is waiving its delivery fee for independent restaurants across the United States and Canada.

President Cyril Ramaphosa amended the travel ban to high-risk countries including UK and the US effective from 18 March 2020.

People around the world that are in the affected countries already started ordering their luggage to be shipped to them as they will not be able to travel until the bans are lifted. Companies like Send My Bag have experienced an increase of requests from countries like Spain, United States and South Africa.

Retail

Retailers are experiencing an influx of customers who are panic buying goods that they will need for next couple of months. Big retail stores are running out of stock faster than the spread of COVID–19 so much that they have had to impose limits on how many items each customer can purchase. Out of respect for the high risk age cohort – the elderly, certain stores such as Pick ‘n pay have introduced a shopping hour (7-8am) for pensioners only an hour for the elderly only. With population becoming crowd averse, smaller supermarkets will have an opportunity to expand their businesses.

 

Outdoor and indoor games

Indoor and outdoor recreational game suppliers have seen an increase in sales when the government said schools would have to close, seeing other outlets selling more than 200% when compared to what they had sold around about same time last year.

 

Reading matter

Another pursuit that is popular with people who have time on their hands right now is settling down with a good book. In addition, perhaps surprisingly, fictional accounts of epidemics are in great demand.

Electrical goods

As people are panic buying even though government has stated that there is no need for that, all that food has to be stored somewhere. As a result, freezers and fridges have zoomed up the list of products people are searching for on online marketplaces.