Essay: The Impact of COVID-19 on the UK Economy: Positive and Negative Aspects

Coronavirus or better known as Covid-19 is a dangerous disease that attacks all the respiratory system of human being. It began in China in a wet market in Wuhan where they sold live animals for example cats, dog, fish, rabbit and bats.
The first case showed up in December 2019 and spread in the rest of the world in February and it jeopardise many lives. Therefore, covid-19 became a pandemic.
The virus is easily transmissible through coughs, sneezes and can enter into the body through mouth, eyes or nose, for these reasons the NIH (National Institutes Health) and the WHO (World Health Organisation) recommended people for social distancing at least one metre and the obligation of the mask.
At the beginning, the scientist and doctors thought that the virus could affect only old people but nowadays it affects also children and youth.
The flu influenced every area of our lives. On the 23rd March 2020 the Prime Minister, established a lockdown in the United Kingdom and this presupposition paved the way for a global economic and financial crisis since every shop and business was closed. As a result, companies made the staff redundant and filed for bankruptcy.
Previously in 2008, many European countries faced a financial crisis that started in US and many effects are remaining such as high debts and unemployment. Brexit is also a very critical situation because UK could lose many European companies in UK, the cost of travel will increase, the exit could cost billions and UK could lose Scotland, which prefer to remain in the EU.
COVID-19 contribute to an unstable economy in UK, due to the pandemic many shops, restaurants, companies and schools had to close because they were unable to work physically in their offices. I believed that the pandemic has positive and negative aspects.
On one hand, the situation fosters smart office; in fact, many doors have open for some companies. They can organise better their work to be efficient through technology, these leads them to work with many different countries, and there are no more physical barriers. The economy has become global. After the pandemic, there will be a development of smart working. Another positive aspect is the pollution reduction. Due to the lockdown, people are not using means of transport instead, they use bicycles or they walk and warehouses are not producing greenhouse gas anymore. For sure, this is improving the air quality.
On the other hand during the pandemic, the staff were made redundant and some were planning to do so mainly related to an economic and business recovery in fact, 90% are occurring before November 2020 even though only 17% of the companies hired new people. Almost 60% of the business accessed to bank lending but with the high demand of loans although 9% did not want to have debts. As a result, businesses made some changes for example reduce the hours of work, unpaid leaves or reduce the salary. Moreover, UK will lose 700 dollars per seconds due to the loss of tourism. China, France and United State are the top visitors in UK but this time they have to self-isolate for two weeks. WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council) says this is the worst scenario because three million jobs in tourist industry are at risk.
John Lewis is a famous company with the large number of employees. This year due to the crisis eight shops closed and this action costed them 105 million dollars. The others shops are catching up in points with the online shopping but the employees will not receive the usual bonus.
People are walk in a dark tunnel because they do not know what will happen to the economy and the earth. The financial crisis and Brexit have influenced strongly our economy and I have illustrated they are having repercussions still in our days. In March, no one expected the pandemic but know more and more companies are becoming practical with online services. This decade will be the time when everything will be done through technology. Preparation is the only way we can avoid a downfall of our economy. Covid-19 is a beating but I believed that the pandemic will end but it will take a long time for the economy to recover.