7 COVID-19: Disaster or an Opportunity …
171
Fig. 7.1 Motives of environmental sustainability
threat to our health. COVID-19 has changed everything in few days and beyond
imagination. People are stuck in different places due to lockdowns and it has greatly
impacted the economies of different countries. This pandemic has resulted in loss of
human lives and governments are trying to prevent the spread of this virus to protect
against further death loss. Transportation is shut and most of the trains and flights
are being cancelled so that people do not come out without any purpose and to avoid
human to human contact during travel [46]. On the other side the natural world has
shown signs of improvement due to human absence and coronavirus lockdowns have
optimistically impacted our environment. There is an improvement in quality of air,
liberated wildlife, etc. [10].
The major source of disaster in the twenty-first century is novel coronavirus and to
find out the drugs to prevent and cure is a foremost need of the hour [54]. World Health
Organization in March, 2020 declared coronavirus a global pandemic: a disease
prevalent in the whole world affecting large number of people. This virus transmits
through respiratory droplets and human contact [74]. COVID-19 can be transmitted
in a healthy person from an infected person through internal or external body parts
such as saliva, cough, sneeze, etc., and also through objects that have virus [50] and
when the whole world is without a vaccine for corona the only alternative is to break
transmission chain [2]. Globally, as of 24 July 2020, there are 15,296,926 confirmed
COVID-19 cases [72] and the same can be seen in Fig. 7.2.
COVID-19 pandemic has been impacting the institutions, businesses, industries
and people around the world posing a threat to the economic development of a
country and also posing a threat in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) [37]. Moreover, lockdown due to COVID-19 has resulted into miserable
consequences leaving the world at standstill. But the quality of our environment
has bolstered in terms of air quality as air pollution reduced massively during the
lockdown, water in the rivers at several places were found much cleaner than past
years and wildlife flourished to its fullest with reduced human intervention. The
171
Fig. 7.1 Motives of environmental sustainability
threat to our health. COVID-19 has changed everything in few days and beyond
imagination. People are stuck in different places due to lockdowns and it has greatly
impacted the economies of different countries. This pandemic has resulted in loss of
human lives and governments are trying to prevent the spread of this virus to protect
against further death loss. Transportation is shut and most of the trains and flights
are being cancelled so that people do not come out without any purpose and to avoid
human to human contact during travel [46]. On the other side the natural world has
shown signs of improvement due to human absence and coronavirus lockdowns have
optimistically impacted our environment. There is an improvement in quality of air,
liberated wildlife, etc. [10].
The major source of disaster in the twenty-first century is novel coronavirus and to
find out the drugs to prevent and cure is a foremost need of the hour [54]. World Health
Organization in March, 2020 declared coronavirus a global pandemic: a disease
prevalent in the whole world affecting large number of people. This virus transmits
through respiratory droplets and human contact [74]. COVID-19 can be transmitted
in a healthy person from an infected person through internal or external body parts
such as saliva, cough, sneeze, etc., and also through objects that have virus [50] and
when the whole world is without a vaccine for corona the only alternative is to break
transmission chain [2]. Globally, as of 24 July 2020, there are 15,296,926 confirmed
COVID-19 cases [72] and the same can be seen in Fig. 7.2.
COVID-19 pandemic has been impacting the institutions, businesses, industries
and people around the world posing a threat to the economic development of a
country and also posing a threat in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) [37]. Moreover, lockdown due to COVID-19 has resulted into miserable
consequences leaving the world at standstill. But the quality of our environment
has bolstered in terms of air quality as air pollution reduced massively during the
lockdown, water in the rivers at several places were found much cleaner than past
years and wildlife flourished to its fullest with reduced human intervention. The