Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Its Ramifications on the Economy and Future Perspectives—A Review

Daniel Ofori,Isaac Mensah,Bright Amponsem,George Asumadu

doi:10.4236/me.2021.125048

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature and updates on positive and negative impacts of the trend of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, since no permanent solution has been found. Data drawn from various sources in the form of daily briefings of health and economic experts, bulletins and reports from UN agencies and other agencies were utilised. The study serves as a contribution to insight to enable policy makers to brace for the unexpected as the world is unfolding to unprecedented in the new millennial. It was found that measures such as lockdown, travel bans, closure of schools, churches and Mosques, restaurants, and bars were adopted to control the disease in the economy, as adopted in other parts of the world. The disease harmed the economies enormously, including trade, investments, and the fall in oil prices. The use of different types of nose masks, veronica buckets and sanitizers has been found in the Ghanaian market. Nonetheless, the number of cases is still on the rise due to improper usage and contamination of nose masks by people and the discovery of new variants of COVID-19 in other places has also exacerbated the problem. Currently, there is an approved vaccine to curb the virus in the country, but only a few selected categories of citizens have received first jab and many people do not follow the laid down protocols—a concern to surmount the spread of the pandemic in the country amidst the fear of a third variant of the virus emerging.

Highlights

Coronaviruses are a cluster of viruses capable of producing severe acute respiratory illnesses
The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature and updates on positive and negative impacts of the trend of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, since no permanent solution has been found
Several articles found in the literature on COVID-19 were reviewed in tandem with updates from sources such as the daily and periodic briefings of the National Committee on the pandemic, the World Health Organization, data from the World and Africa Outlook, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning of Ghana, and individual articles were combed as a source of information to discuss the economic impact and the trend of the disease

Summary

Introduction

Coronaviruses are a cluster of viruses capable of producing severe acute respiratory illnesses. Examples include Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (Parolin et al, 2020; Lei et al, 2018; Minnesota Department of Health, 2020). The most common signs of coronavirus infected coronaviruses include fever, dry cough, dyspnea, fatigue, myalgia, anorexia, and chest pain. Sore throat, rhinorrhea, dizziness, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, confusion, and chest pain are among the less common (Ahmed, 2020; Huang et al, 2020; Wang et al, 2020; Zhu et al, 2020). According to the (World Health Organization (WHO), 2020a; Soewarno, 2020), coronaviruses can infect a wide range of animals (including bats, palm civets, and pangolins). The four main types of human coronavirus (HCoV) are HCoV-229E (alpha coronavirus), HCoV-NL63 (alpha coronavirus), HCoV-OC43 (beta coronavirus), and HCoV-HKU1 (beta coronavirus) (Ibid)

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