Corona Virus which came to be known as COVID-19. With the ending of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 the virus came with different changes and Concequences for many counties. The first case of COVID-19 was traced out in China on 31 of December 2019 when wuhan Muncipal Health commission, china, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in wuhan, Hubei province which finally let to the discovery of Corona Virus. When the first case of covid was traced out neither was it reported nor taken as a sign of pendimaic that was going to take all over the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) on 4th January 2020 reported about the incident in Hubei province . At the time WHO reported it for first time it had no deaths. On 5th of January 2020 WHO shared with different countries on what china has disclosed to them about the new virus. On 10th january 2020WHO published a report on how deal with the Virus. And finally on 12th January 2 days after the guidelines by WHO, china shared publicly genetic and then just after the day outside china was traced. On 13 January Thailand was the first country that reported case after china. With coming time days after on 22 January 2020 WHO mission to china in a statement said about human to human transmission. With the coming of 2nd July almost every South Asiian country had at least one of postive case reported. The human to human transmission became a worry and to stop human to human transmission the whole world went into a hurry mode to control the spread of virus and imposed a nationwide lock down whole world went for a lock down. And at once who the economic activities came to halt. As India over took china in active corona cases it became first among the South Asian countries to declare shut down in the middle of may, which was followed by Pakistan that declared lock down on 4th June and was second to declare shut down and Bangladesh the third by declaring shut down on 13th of June. By 10th June the number of recoveries took over the number of active cases and the same scenario was followed by Pakistan on 3rd July and by Bangladesh on 12 July. The South Asian countries came together to fight the newly found deadly virus. The platform that got them together is the already found SAARC. As the idea was proposed the SAARC countries rolled out huge economic help to SAARC. The idea of joint emergency fund to tackle the pandemic was proposed by Modi. And he Pledged the support of US $10 million, Sri Lanka US $5 million, Pakistan $3, Bangladesh $ 1.5, Afghanistan and Nepal $1million each, Maldives $ 200,000 and Bhutan $ 100,00 . The beginning data of deaths and recoveries in 190 countries as on 29 March 2020 was deaths 33,500 approximately and recoveries 150,000. The recoveries exceeded the deaths even in the beginning of the pandemic which clearly shows that countries all over the world responded in an emergency mode to the pandemic and tried their best to control it. While as south Asia is the most densely populated and the number of tests done in the south Asia isn’t the way it should have been. It must be noted that south Asia is considered vulnerable to any such large scale outbreak of an infectious disease. Afghanistan confirmed it’s first COVID case on 24 February in a 35 years old man from herat Province. On 7 March three new were confirmed from in herat. And on 10th of March the first case outside herat Province was reported in samangan Province which brought the tally of cases in Afghanistan to five. The first death in the country was reported on 22nd of March. With confirming of first death the toll mounted to 40 and by 29 March to 120. Afghanistan had closed its borders with Iran on 23rd of February when first suspected cases emerged in haret provision bordering Iran.
India: – Confirmed casesof COVID-19 infections in India as of 7 September 2020
India has more than 5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world which is largest in Asia and second largest in the world after United States with more than 82 thousand deaths and around 4 million patients recovered . Country reported its first infection on 30 January, 2020 while eventual moderate rise of infections took place due to students from Wuhan and tourist groups from Italy. In March, the transmissions grew after several people with travel history to affected countries, and their contacts, tested positive. On12March,a76-year-old man, with a travel history to Saudi Arabia, became the first COVID-19 fatality of India. A gathering by Tablighi Jamaat emerged as a super spreader event adding more than 4,000 cases directly. On 22 March, the Government of India announced complete lockdown in 82 districts in 22 states and Union Territories of the country where confirmed cases were reported. 80 cities including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Kolkata were put under lockdown. Some states sealed their borders barring inter-state movement. On 24 March, PM Narendra Modi announced a complete21-day national lockdown to contain the pandemic. By 6th April, the doubling rate had slowed to six days from earlier figure of three days. In June, India was ranked 56th of 200 countries in COVID-19 safety assessment report by Deep Knowledge Group.
Nepal: A Nepal istudent who had returned to Kathmandu from Wuhan became the first case of the country and South Asia on 23rd January 2020.The first case of local transmission inside the country was confirmed on 4th April, while the first COVID-19 death came on 14th May. The country observed an almost four-month- long nation wide lockdown between 24th March and 21 July.As of 18th December 2020, the country has atotalof 252,474 confirmed cases, 241,392 recoveries, and 1,765 deaths.
Pakistan: – The COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease2019(COVID 19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV)
2).The virus was confirmed to have reached Pakistan on 26th February 2020, when two cases were recorded (a student in Karachi who had just returned from Iran and another person in the Islamabad Capital Territory). On 18th March, cases had been registered in all four provinces, the two autonomous territories, and Islamabad Capital Territory, and by 176th June, each district in Pakistan had recorded at least one confirmed case of COVID-19.Pakistan currently has the 9th-highest number of confirmed cases in Asia, after India, Russia, Iran,Iraq,Indonesia,Bangladesh,Turkey,andPhilippines;the3rd highest number of confirmed cases in South Asia after India and Bangladesh; and the 28th highest number of confirmed cases in the world. On15th June, daily new confirmed case numbers reached their peak, with 6,825 new cases recorded, but since then, new daily cases and the percentage of people testing positive have trended downwards. In late June, the number of active cases in Pakistan stabilized and beginning in July, started showing a significant decrease. On 2nd July, recoveries exceeded active cases for the first time as 8,929 recoveries were recorded, meaning that 51% of all confirmed cases in the country todate had recovered. While Pakistan has the world’s 28th highest case count, it only has the world’s 29th highest death count. The province of Sindh has recorded the most cases at about 134,000, and has also recorded the most deaths due to COVID-19, about 2,500 to date. The country was put under a nationwide lockdown from April 1st and extended twice until 9th May. Upon its end, the lockdown was eased in phases.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are his own)
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