MY COVID-19 STORY (Sharing Experiences and Best practices)

[Amna Ashraf]

Greetings,
Here is my Covid-19 story.

It was the evening of 31st December, 2019. I was listening to the news Bulletin. Suddenly, I heard the news of a new virus which began to spread rapidly in China's city Wuhan. I just listened to that news and prayed for China and then after sometime I forgot that news as we all usually do. But after two or three days, I came to know that this disease has been spreading so fast. It was given the name of Covid-19. Rapidly, it was spread to other parts of the world in the countries like America , Italy, and there was no cure to it. Many people were dying due to it and The WHO called it a global Pandemic .This covid-19 was spreading through cough or even by touching the covid-19 patient. It has no specific symptoms but only fever and cough and it was really hard to guess who was having this disease. I was happy that Pakistan took some good measures in order to stop the virus from entering in the country. But unfortunately, we can't make it possible for so long. And Covid-19 began to spread in Pakistan. In the beginning, there was only one patient with covid-19 positive report and later on , it started increasing and from 1, it went to 50, then to 100, to 300 and then it reached 1000. Government took very good measures in order to prevent its spread . Lockdown was implemented in the country in order to save lives of our dear ones because the death ratio was also high. Schools, colleges, offices were closed.

In my life, it was first experience to see such a situation. I remember , in my school days , daily at night, I used to pray for the holidays that Oh Allah! Please "something" may happen tomorrow and we get an off from the school ,but that "SOMETHING" never happened. But when I actually saw "something" happening and the closure of schools and colleges , it was actually a sad moment .On one side, listening to news and listening about the wide spread of the disease and the number of deaths, and on the other side, just sitting idle in our houses and having nothing to do and with a fear that something will happen. That moment was really frustrating. Even, I was unable to go outside and then at home, everywhere on media and social media, the only news was about the pandemic. So, everybody including me were tired physically as wall as mentally. I stopped my siblings from going outside and my grandparents from meeting anybody. No doubt, it seemed wired talking about not meeting anybody, staying away from everybody but health is wealth and also for our safety, we had to take this step. I still remember, I had some allergy, so I went to the doctor .The doctor didn't even touch me and only prescribed some medicines. On my way back, I passed away from the Mall road Murree and in 19 years of my life, I have never seen such desolation on Mall road. There was always a hustle and bustle over there. A lot of tourists laughing and enjoying , but that day, I was alone over there, There were no voices, no crowd, no bustle just silence and weird peace.

During lockdown, although that moment, everyone was afraid of this disease but one good thing think happened was that covid-19 bought us close to each other. In this era of of mobile phones and internet, we people have just stopped enjoying that beautiful company of our family members and also we are so busy in our tough routines that we can't give time to our family. So, everybody was at home during this lockdown and everyone enjoyed the taste of happy family life. My siblings and I used to spend a lot of time together playing , gossiping and teasing each other. I also gave time and company to my parents. With that , daily I used to cook food for my family and then the best part was watching videos on internet about cooking and learning to cook new dishes and then trying them in evening and then receiving compliments from my family members and also when siblings used to tease me Oh! you can't cook. This food is untasteful and unsavory but then watching them eating and enjoying the food was another pleasure. But with that, I was also sad about people who lost their jobs due to pandemic and the daily wagers, it was really hard for them to feed their families. So , that always made me sad and I wished I could do something for them.

One good thing that I observed was the unity among us. Covid-19 brought us closer to each other in a sense that we were all praying for our nation, everyone taking care of wearing mask ,so that they can save themselves and others also. I saw many rich peoples doing charities and distributing food items among the needy. So, we learnt to be a responsible nation . Fortunately, we were able to control the disease but after sometime, the second wave of covid-19 began to spread again in the country and again that lockdown and fear. Vaccination also began in the country, but I hope this vaccine will be enough to fight against the disease, only then we will be able to get rid of covid-19. We can decrease its spread by wearing the mask and not going outside much but this is not a permanent solution. Now a days, vaccine seems to be the only solution in order to get rid of this disease. I wish that everybody in the country should get vaccinated and we all become able to see that time again when we were all together in the crowds, enjoying, people rushing towards markets and parks. I wish to see that spring again and everyone meeting others without any fear and I wish to say proudly that yes! we did it. We have defeated the disease and we survived this hard time boldly.

My major area of concern is our economy and our educational system. The outbreak of covid-19 has surely effected global and Pakistani economy. Due to lockdown, there was a decrease in demand for many goods, there was less labor force required, exchange(imports & exports) were effected badly. There become a shortage of raw materials. All this effected our economy badly. Due to covid-19 most of enterprises were instructed to shut down their business in order to reduce spread of disease. So now, working remotely as much as possible is the only solution that seems to me in this situation. A better and a quick way to minimize the exposure to disease is reduce travelling. Moreover, enterprises should be assisted by the government .Such as, they should be provided subsidies in tax, in utility charges and they should be provided loans. So ,when business will flourish, automatically, economy will also be improved.

In the educational sector, online medium is good until we get rid of this pandemic. Although, the learning level is not much ,but we do not have any other option for our safety so, we will have to compromise on this. One thing that students can do on their own behalf is to increase self-learning. Only then we will able to learn. Government is taking good decisions in this regard. However, when pandemic ends, the government should immediately open all educational institutions in order to prevent students from further loss.

This pandemic has brought many troubles in our lives and with that it has taken many precious lives. I wish and pray to Allah to help us all and end it soon and bless everyone in the world with health and happiness.

Sincerely,

Amna Ashraf,
010
Aero 19-A.