CORONAVIRUS’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS

Corona Virus – shortly known as Covid-19 – ushered in a new phase of behavioral shift at the level of domestic affairs as well as international relations.
At home, the danger has awakened a new thinking of re- considering the manner we handle affairs in somewhat irrational way or rather indifferent vital hygienic practices – such as washing hands (even before eating). I have written an article in Al Sudan Arabic Daily Newspaper, on October 30, 2012, under the titled “Khamag Sudani” (Sudanese recklessness) in which I called upon the Sudanese people to give up such uncivilized behavior as eating without washing their hands.
I think the horror made by Corona, even in the most advanced countries, is a quite good drive for us in Sudan to pay more attention to such bad behavior. Paradoxically, this may be a “positive” effect on Sudanese – if they are to survive the Pandemic.
However, there are great negative impacts of Corona on the Sudanese people – at both the official and non-official levels. At the state level, our government is yet to hardly remedy our ailing economy left by the defunct regime of Omer Al-Beshir and his corrupt adherents. As about half of the Sudanese are very poor with low-income majority, they cannot afford to buy face masks, handcuffs, sterilizers and other medical stuffs to help in warding off the virus. This is in addition to lack of adequate awareness about the importance of paying the due attention to this obstinate disease. Even those who are economically well off they haven’t respond to the appeal for caution only after intensive calls, intensive media programs and the rampant global spread of the disease – with tremendous figures of deaths worldwide that made them act positively.
However, a paramount portion of the Sudanese people will be badly affected by abiding to the total curfew because many of them work in private, non-official sectors or just wage earner on daily basis. So, one expects that economic impact will be very sore to the majority poor. Public life will be affected by keeping people at home for three weeks.
Given the fact that the pandemic is not yet rampant, the government could have slowed down the pace toward this total curfew for three weeks. It would be good if the government started by one-week curfew as many countries did, otherwise the authorities should do their best to provide food assistance to thousands of families whose householder earn money on daily basis (Yomiya). Zakat and other related institutions are expected to provide such assistance – in kind – through the local councils.
No doubt, the virus, and the related measures it has motivated, will have negative social impacts on Sudanese people as it bans ordinary visits among the relatives. However, the alternative is a deadly one because the virus infection is fatal.