How Other Countries Are Coping With Covid-19
October 29, 2020
2020 has been an insane year. From the West Coast fires to the Black Lives Matter Protests, our country has faced countless of notable obstacles this year. However, the greatest obstacle we have all had to face this year has been the Coronavirus pandemic. With millions of cases nationwide and thousands of deaths that have already occurred, the Coronavirus have turned our lives upside down.
Thanks to the news and some promising websites, we already know how our country is doing the pandemic. But how about the rest of the world? How are the other countries doing in comparison to us? Is Italy still in lockdown? Has China reopened their economy? This is not to mention other countries we haven’t heard much of, such as the Philippines and South Korea. So what has happened to our fellow nations during this pandemic? Let’s find out!
Earlier in the year, Italy was considered an epicenter for the virus, and was a country to be avoided at all costs. This was because of the rapidly growing number of cases being recorded nationwide. In fact, according to sources from axios.com, there were 9,172 cases on March 9, the day when the entire country was put under lockdown. As of recently however, the worst of the ride may be over for Italy.
Referring to the charts on worldometers.info, there has been an uprising of cases in early October. Thankfully, the amount of deaths in the country have been kept to a minimum. During the lockdown, the Italian economy was put to a halt, and soon became costly. However, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that “the health of the Italian people comes and will always come first”.
Next, I will be talking about China. Compared to what some people might believe, the Coronavirus originated from China. For the first three months of the year, there were thousands of new cases being reported. The number of confirmed cases peaked on February 12 according to worldometers.info, at 14,108 people contracting the virus. In the last few months however, I will say that the country has been doing wonderfully compared to other countries when it comes to controlling the virus.
As reported by thelancet.com, China has had a total of around 90,604 cases and a little under 5,000 deaths. This is in comparison to the U.S’s 7,382,194 cases and 209,382 deaths. How has China been able to keep their casualties to a minimum, you may ask? Mainly, it was due to how fast they responded. Strict regulations on the population were put in place, that of which included a lockdown and millions of tests for Covid. Along with those countermeasures, wearing masks were of the utmost importance, thus helping slow the spread of the disease.
Overall, it is clear that we were not the only country affected by this pandemic. People all over the world have felt the effects of the virus, whether it be first-hand or otherwise. And until we find a solution to help stop this virus, we’re all in this together.
Some More In-Depth Reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/world/europe/italy-coronavirus-reopening.html
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/italy/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/world/asia/wuhan-coronavirus.html
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30800-8/fulltext
