According to World Health Organization, globally there were 175,469 confirmed cases and 483 deaths from Covid-19 on November 22, 2022. China reported its first death in six months and 24,215 new cases of Covid-19 infection on November 20, 2022. The pandemic is still dragging on.
The Covid-19 virus first appeared in China in November 2019. In March 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized it as a pandemic. As of November 22, 2022, the worldwide coronavirus deaths stood at 6,602,552. The highest death toll was in the US at 1,067,123.
Besides people’s physical suffering and deaths, there were also huge economic impacts. According to an article by John Elflein published by Statista on November 22, 2022, the forecast for the growth of global real GDP was 2.9% for 2020 but due to the pandemic, the actual growth came down to a negative 3.4%. There were many job losses and changes in the income levels of people. An estimated 130 million people worldwide moved down to the poor category. The travel and tourism industry was hit the hardest. According to International Air Transport Association (IATA), the net post-tax profits of the global world airline industry were $26.4 billion in 2019 which came down to a loss of $137.7 billion in 2020. And Travel Week reported a revenue drop in the global hotel industry by 46% in the same period.
However, there were some exceptions to the widespread economic losses. The online business, for example, boomed during the pandemic as people resorted to buying online as shops were closed or to avoid human contact. Businesses that were selling only through physical outlets started to sell online and offer home delivery. The multinational e-commerce company Amazon’s net sales revenue increased from $280.52 billion in 2019 to $386.06 billion in 2020 and $469.82 billion in 2021. Another business that gained windfall profit is Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers. We will look into this in a bit more detail later on.
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This article was published in the Daily Sun on November 30, 2022. Please read the full article here or here.