{O/C} Hello, and welcome to world review 2021.
The COVID-19 crisis continues to be front-and-centre in the entire globe.
As such, more than 5 million people have been killed and hundreds of thousands hospitalised.
Now, as the world continues to languish in such a quagmire, many wonder, is there a real escape hatch from this predicament? Or as the situation aggravates, will the fight against the pandemic persist in perpetuity?
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COVID-19, a deadly virus with a number of mutant strains, literally ran rampant in every nook and cranny of the world and swamped every country with so much work as the world continued its fight against the dreadful virus this year.
Sure enough, every country was given its fair share of problems.
In China, lockdowns were in place for most of the time in the first and second quarter of last year. The country’s economy was hit by a double whammy of the virus and simmering tensions between the U.S. and China. As a result, the nation’s economy grew at the slowest pace ever in the first half of the year, according to official figures. But later in the year, as anti-virus measures were given full play, the country quickly recovered from the economic recession brought by the pandemic. Data shows China’s 2020 ended on a happy note, as the country’s economy grew by 2.3 percent, in spite of COVID-19 shutdowns causing sluggish domestic demand, and the weakening of the total export of goods.
This year, China’s economy continued to recover rapidly from the economic recession brought by COVID-19. Economic data reveals that in the first quarter of this year, the nation’s economy grew by a record 18.3 percent, while retail sales and industrial production grew by 34.2 percent. Despite the pandemic, it is the highest quarterly year-on-year growth rate on record, since data first began being published in 1993. China has earned the reputation as the only major economy to report economic growth since the onset of the pandemic.
While China has got most problems brought about by COVID-19 resolved, it was anything but for other nations around the world as they continued to suffer the brunt of the outbreak. Among them, India is the hardest hit. COVID deaths in India reached 200,000 in the latter part of April.
Medical experts did warn of a more devastating surge in COVID infections right before the catastrophic outbreak in April. But the Indian government still failed to batten down the hatches before the worst-ever outbreak battered. Indians endured a very difficult period during which around 400,000 Indians were infected and around 4,000 died every day. An imbroglio many Indians described as a COVID debacle.
The country’s fragile healthcare system was the hardest hit in reality. Having to deal with tons of patients at the same time, and with medical and oxygen supplies stretched thin, hospitals were literally plagued by the catastrophe. Many COVID victims died because of a lack of oxygen. Morgues and crematories were overwhelmed by a deluge of bodies of COVID victims.
A gargantuan effort to fight the disease was underway for most of the year in the second populous country in the world. And witnessing Indians suffering the full brunt of the virus spoke volumes. Some wealthier countries, such as the United States, Israel, Britain and France, lent a helping hand by way of sending oxygen generators and medical supplies to India as Indians were in their quest for the lesser of two evils in this trying situation.
Try as they may, the number of COVID infections in India soon ballooned, surpassing the 400,000-case milestone.
As U.S. President Joe Biden started his first overseas trip as U.S. President, he, alongside other world leaders from the G7 industrialised nations, announced their vaccine sharing commitments to help combat the pandemic. They pledged to share at least 1 billion COVID doses - half the doses coming from the U.S., and 100 million from Britain. That aims to help poor countries fight the pandemic as the world forged a united front against it.
Meantime, the European Union came under fire for politicizing COVID vaccines. Not recognising the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Chinese and Russian vaccines had China and Russia crying foul, condemning the politicisation of vaccines.
However, EU regulators skirted the issue, saying AstraZeneca had yet to complete the necessary paperwork on the Indian factory.
And then, another dispiriting setback came in July, making everyone wish they could reverse the hands of time to go back to 2019, the last year we all lapped up without the dreadful pandemic.
In July, despite people straining every nerve to curb outbreaks around the world and looking forward to finally stamping out the virus, the World Health Organisation reported the number of deaths climbed in the middle of the month. More than 55,000 lives were lost every day in that month. Confirmed COVID cases worldwide hit the three million mark. And to put the numbers in perspective, COVID deaths rose by 3 percent and cases rose 10 percent from a month ago.
Brazil, India, Indonesia and Britain remained the hardest hit.
Still, Britain in late July lifted most anti-virus restrictions, allowing bars and nightclubs to return to business. British officials seemed to have closed their eyes to the fact that the Delta variant was spreading rapidly and can immediately spoil the party. The lifting of most anti-virus restrictions had scientists worried the U.K. might have entered uncharted waters.
As health experts offered their two cents as to whether the U.S. would have to face another crisis, U.S. states rushed to restore indoor mask mandates in August. That, despite a rise in vaccination rate in the U.S.
The worrisome reality was, many conservative Americans and the sceptical public remained unconvinced.
Rebellion notwithstanding, the U.S. finally reached 70 percent vaccination rate on August 3rd, a month later than the original goal. All the same, thanks to the highly contagious Delta variant, the rise in vaccination rates still failed to curb virus outbreaks across the country.
Just as the world thought we all were out of the woods and preparing to celebrate Christmas with gaiety, in late November, South African scientists laid bare a new mutant strain called "Omicron" of the coronavirus behind a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in that region.
Israel, Belgium and Hong Kong were among the first places affected by the new mutant strain.
In light of the possibility that the new variant could evolve and Europe could become a potential breeding ground for an exponential rise of infections, a slew of European countries immediately scrambled to ban travellers from South Africa.
In early December, a number of COVID infections pertaining to the Omicron variant were reported in parts of the United States.
In mid-December, the United States' fight against the virus appeared to be coming apart at the seams, as the country was battered by yet another dispiriting setback - the 800,000-case milestone.
At the same time, Britain saw its first death of a patient who had fallen victim to the Omicron variant.
In retrospect, despite the world working day and night to eradicate the virus, being that the number of COVID-related deaths surpassed that of last year, our fight against the pandemic is apt to persist as time ticks away.
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