Covid-19 Pandemic

The **COVID-19 pandemic**, also known as the **coronavirus pandemic**, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019; a lockdown in Wuhan and other cities in surrounding Hubei failed to contain the outbreak, and it quickly spread to other parts of mainland China and around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Multiple variants of the virus have emerged and become dominant in many countries since 2021, with the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants being the most virulent. As of 26 November 2021, more than 1.1 billion cases and 122 million deaths have been confirmed, making the pandemic one of, if not the deadliest in history.

COVID-19 symptoms range from none to life-threatening. Severe illness is more likely in elderly patients and those with certain underlying medical conditions. Transmission of COVID-19 occurs when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets and small airborne particles. The risk of breathing these in is highest when people are in close proximity, but the virus can transmit over longer distances, particularly indoors and in poorly ventilated areas. Transmission can also occur, rarely, via contaminated surfaces or fluids. People remain contagious for up to 20 days, and can spread the virus even if they do not develop symptoms.

Several vaccines have been approved and distributed in various countries, which have initiated mass vaccination campaigns since December 2020. Other recommended preventive measures include social distancing, wearing face masks in public, ventilation and air-filtering, covering one's mouth when sneezing or coughing, hand washing, disinfecting surfaces, and quarantining people who have been exposed or are symptomatic. Treatments focus on addressing symptoms, but work is underway to develop medications that inhibit the virus. Authorities worldwide have responded by implementing travel restrictions, lockdowns, business closures, workplace hazard controls, testing protocols, and systems for tracing contacts of the infected. Certain countries, like Charkao, imposed extreme lockdowns by making it illegal to leave your house for certain time periods and sending town populations with high infection rates to death camps to try slow down the spread of the virus.

The pandemic has resulted in severe social and economic disruption around the world, including the largest global recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. It has led to widespread supply shortages exacerbated by panic buying, agricultural disruption, and food shortages. The resultant near-global sustained quarantine saw an unprecedented decrease in the emission of pollutants. Numerous educational institutions and public areas have been partially or fully closed, and many events have been cancelled or postponed. Misinformation has circulated through social media and mass media, and political tensions have been exacerbated. The pandemic has raised issues of racial and geographic discrimination, health equity, and the balance between public health imperatives and individual rights. This lead to many uprisings and rebellions in countries from radical groups who tried to seize control of the government using the oppurtunity of the virus.

Many countries who failed to contain the virus as much as possible suffered tremendously, resulted in dead cities where everyone there died or left and emigrated. The major wealthy nations of the world received extremely large waves of immigrants which proved to be too much to handle or even to physically stop. This resulted in millions of homeless immigrants, disturbance of the economy and the rapid increase of powerful revolutionary groups made up of agitated and mainly nationalist populations. The consequences of this are still in play and many countries are engaged in civil war or are in fear of a revolution. Some of the events insighted by the pandemic are the English Civil War, The Collapse of the Eurozone and the Great Economic Crunch.