Negative Impacts of Covid-19

Rapid increase in biomedical wastes:

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic sudden increase in the medical waste is seen which is hazardous for human life. For collection of sample of patient, treatment, diagnosis, disinfection a lot of infectious biomedical wastes are generated. During the time of outbreak about 240 million tones more medical waste was produced in Wuhan than normal waste. In India medical waste increased from 500 to 1000 kg per day during first wave of Covid-19.

In Dhaka because of Covid-19 206 million tons of waste is produced per day. Other cities of world also experienced same increase in biomedical waste. A large number of biomedical waste is produced and the treatment of such waste is a challenge for whole world. It has been seen SARS-CoV-2 can live up to 3 days on stainless steel and plastic. So the management of waste is a huge challenge in order to decrease contagious infection and pollution.

Use of medical equipment and their hazardous disposal:

In order to get protected from the deadly virus people need gloves, masks and a number of safety equipment due to which health care waste is increasing. Increased use of PPE at domestic level has increased trash level in USA. The production and use of PPE worldwide has been significantly increased. About 14.8 million increase in production of masks in China has been observed since February 2020.

Majority of people do not have proper knowledge of mask disposal which increase the risk of infection. Such kind of disposal may cause clog in water bodies and worsen the pollution levels. Micro-plastic fibers has been significantly increased due to improper disposal of masks and plastic equipment. The N-95 masks are made from the polymer polypropylene while gloves, face shields and protective suits are made from Tyvek, both of these substances persists in environment can cause the release of toxin dioxin in environment.

Reduction of recycling and generation of Solid Wastes:

Direct and indirect effect of municipal waste has been seen on all kinds of environments, land, air and water. During lockdown period online shopping activities of people has been greatly increased which causes increased household wastes in the form of package materials. One of most important technique to reduce pollution, conserve resources and save energy is recycling. However the process of recycling has also been banned in major parts of the world including USA, Italy and other western countries. Hence this lockdown has disrupted the process of waste management causing an increase in landfilling.

A number of impacts on climate and environment has been observed due to the restrictions implemented globally. A worldwide lockdown has been implemented which has caused a slow down of various social and economic activities. Due to the restrictions implemented on movement reduction in different kinds of pollution has been observed through-out the world. Improved air quality, decrease in noise pollution along with reduction in water pollution has been seen. Besides positive effects negative impacts of Covid-19 are observed.

The alarming rise of Covid-19 in Spain, United States, Italy, South Korea and France caused the oil markets and financial stability of the world a severe loss. People became sick, lost their jobs and died that directly impacted the social and economic conditions of the world.

One of the most dramatic impacts of COVID-19 on us is the global economic damage it triggered. Several industries were heavily impacted by the new measures set in place to contain the spread of the virus. It includes transportation, oil and gas, production and manufacturing, and entertainment. It also decreased the demand of customers as the virus greatly impacted their spending habits due to low income.