Life After Lock Down

India went on a Nationwide lockdown from 25 th March 2020, initial plan was for 21 days , on 14 th April 2020 Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the locked down until 3 rd May 2020. On 1 st May 2020, the lockdown was further extended until 17 th May 2020.

As of today there are 37,776 confirmed Covid -19 cases in India, 10,018 recovered cases and 1,223 reported death. Worldwide 3.39 Million Confirmed cases, 1.06 Million recovered cases and 239,000 death reported. These are alarming figures growing exponentially day by day. Throughout history epidemics devasted humanity sometimes perishing the entire civilizations.

Deadly Pandemic in History

Three of the deadliest pandemics were caused by a single bacterium infection, Yersinia pestis, also called the plague. The first one was the Plague of Justinian in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in 6 th Century ( 541 CE) killing 30 to 50 million people. The second one, the Black Death, (the bubonic plague, started in Europe in the Middle Ages( 1347-1353,) perished 200 million lives in just four years. The plague resurfaced roughly every 20 years from 1348 to 1665—40 outbreaks in 300 years.

The third one called Modern Plague, which began in the late 19th century in China and spread by rats on steamships, claiming close to 10 million lives. It spread in all continent ultimately led to more than 12 million deaths in India and China, with about 10 million killed in India alone.

Other fata pandemic ravaged the human history includes

Flu pandemic: 1889-1890 ( The pandemic killed an estimated 1 million people)
American polio epidemic: 1916 (A polio epidemic that started in New York City caused 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths in the United States. The disease mainly affects children and sometimes leaves survivors with permanent disabilities )
Spanish Flu: 1918-1920 (An estimated 500 million people from the South Seas to the North Pole fell victim to Spanish Flu. One-fifth of those died, with some indigenous communities pushed to the brink of extinction. )
Asian Flu: 1957-1958 (The total death toll was more than 1.1 million worldwide, with 116,000 deaths occurring in the United States.)
AIDS pandemic and epidemic: 1981-present day (AIDS has claimed an estimated 35 million lives since it was first identified)
H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic: 2009-2010 (the virus infected as many as 1.4 billion people across the globe and killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people, according to the CDC)
West African Ebola epidemic: 2014-2016( Ebola ravaged West Africa between 2014 and 2016, with 28,600 reported cases and 11,325 deaths)
Zika Virus epidemic: 2015-present day

Virus & Body Immunity:

Our body has the ability to defend itself from disease causing foreign bodies such as Viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths etc. Viruses are microscopic organisms that exists everywhere on earth, Viruses vary in its complexity. Unlike bacteria, Virus need a host to replicate, that is why Viruses are called parasites. After contacting a host cell, a virus will insert genetic material into the host and take over that host’s functions. There is no cure for Viruses, but vaccination can prevent them from spreading. Viruses normally last for 7-10 days, so basically it is a waiting game until our body fights viruses by creating antibodies against the virus.

How to Improve Immunity?

Scientists suggests to keep our immune system naturally strong and healthy following a healthy life style which includes personal hygiene such as washing your hands frequently and cooking meats thoroughly.
Lead a stress free life style , regular exercise and maintain healthy weight, follow healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables, avoid smoking and alcohol consumption very moderate, adequate sleep etc

Unprecedented Challenges & Life after Corona

Most of us never imagined that such a devasting pandemic will hit our lives so unprecedented manner and badly impacting our routine life. It may take many years to rebuild the socio economic downturn
from the impact of Covid-19.

So what are the learnings and what would be our way forward after lockdown?

We need to change the way we lived so far, our habits and behaviors need to be changed. There is no doubt that we learned more on personal hygiene during these period, kids also learned to practice good hygiene including covering mouth when they cough and washing hands frequently. We can expect more adaptation with online lives from online schools to entertainment and purchasing without age difference.

Social distancing will be the new norm both at home and work, we will be more vigilant on our health condition and health of others.

We hope a cure or vaccine will be available at the earliest and by caring each other and upholding personal hygiene and safety, we will survive this worst period in our life.