제 17 호 Everything about COVID-19
Kicker: LIFE
Everything about COVID-19
By Myung-Kwan Kang
The COVID-19 pandemic started in 2019 and has swept across the world by 2023, causing huge damage to many countries. It has been changing a lot. How much do you know about COVID-19?
The coronavirus began to occur in a group of unknown viral pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019. On Jan. 7, 2020, the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detected a previously unknown novel coronavirus from pneumonia patients, and on Jan. 11, genetic information of the novel coronavirus was released worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) named it COVID-19, which means a disease caused by the coronavirus in 2019. In January 2020, infections were also confirmed in Thailand, Japan, and Korea, and on March 11, less than three months after being confirmed to have COVID-19, the infection spread to 114 countries, killing more than 4,000 people.
COVID-19 Causes Public Jobs to Decline
Due to the influence of COVID-19, the number of monthly salary (wage work) jobs in their 20s and 30s has decreased by 150,000. On the other hand, the number of jobs in their 60s and older increased by 347,000, the highest since statistics were compiled in 2018. Critics pointed out that the government tried to overcome the job market shock caused by COVID-19 with public jobs, but it did not work for young people and only produced jobs for the elderly. The number of jobs in the manufacturing sector, the foundation of the real economy, also decreased by 87,000, the largest decline ever. According to the "Wage Work Job Trends in the Third Quarter of 2020" released by the National Statistical Office, the number of wage work jobs as of August last year was 1,198,000, up 369,000 (2.0%) from the same period last year. However, if you look at it by age, there were mixed feelings of joy and sorrow. Those in their 20s and younger decreased by 86,000 (-2.6%) and those in their 30s by 64,000 (-1.5%). 150,000 jobs in their 20s and 30s have disappeared. On the other hand, those in their 60s and older increased by 347,000 (14.9 percent).
Damage to Self-employed People Due to COVID-19
The majority of self-employed people are experiencing a decline in sales after the outbreak of COVID-19, and the average sales decline rate reached 53.1%, according to a survey. The COVID-19 Emergency Response Committee held a press conference in front of the Seoul Library on the same day and announced the results of its investigation on the impact of COVID-19 on self-employed people for a year. Of the 1,545 participants in the survey, 1,477 (95.6%) said their sales were lower than before the COVID-19 outbreak in January last year. In addition, their average sales decline rate was 53.1% due to measures such as restrictions on business hours and group restrictions to prevent COVID-19.The average sales decline rate in the non-metropolitan area was 43.7%, and the average sales decline rate in the metropolitan area was 59.2%, indicating that the sales decline of self-employed people in the metropolitan area was large. 81.4% (1,257) of the respondents said their debts increased, and 44.6% (689) of the survey participants said they were considering closing their businesses.
Damage to the Aviation Industry Due to COVID-19
COVID-19 has caused great damage to the aviation industry (as of May 2022.) The downturn in Korea's aviation industry began before COVID-19. Even before COVID-19, Korea's aviation industry had already shrunk due to worsening external conditions such as the boycott of Japanese products, U.S.-China trade war, and exchange rate hike last year. At this time, COVID-19 has caused fatal damage. The aviation industry is a state-based industry that connects the world to promote the flow of trade, tourism, and investment. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 35% of the global trade is done by air, witha total of 65.5 million jobs and economic activities worth $2.7 trillion and about 3,294 trillion won are related to the aviation industry worldwide. In particular, Korea, which has a high a number of exports, has a 47.6 billion dollar aviation industry. This is 3.4% of GDP, creating more than 838,000 jobs. The slowdown in the aviation industry spread to all related industries such as airport service, tourism, and service industries, adversely affecting the economy and employment as a whole. In Korea, passengers on major routes to China and Southeast Asia have decreased significantly due to the influence of COVID-19. As of the third week of March, the number of international passengers decreased by about 93.5% year-on-year, and the average daily passengers at Incheon Airport disappeared 91.6% from 190,000 on March 16, 2019 to 16,000 on March 16, 2020.
Changes in Education Due to COVID-19
The influence of COVID-19 was also great in the educational world where group life is dominant. As school classes are replaced online, there are many aftereffects. As the proportion of online education increases, students are in a situation where they have to study by themselves and keep their own daily lives. Students who have difficulty using their time feel a struggle to focus on classes, and their emotional communication, empathy, and bonds, which were mainly in charge of school, are not properly formed. In the case of elementary school students, serious problems occurred, such as being immersed in games for more than 10 hours a day or not being able to read Korean. In particular, the gap between these problems is widening depending on the family situation, but the class was conducted without any investigation or supplementary measures. Due to COVID-19, learning efficiency has decreased, and there are also second to third graders who do not know Hangul in vulnerable families who lack parental care.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased significantly, people's concerns about COVID-19 in their daily lives are also decreasing significantly. Accordingly, since January 30, Korea has been lifted from the obligation to wear indoor masks in most indoor areas except for some facilities such as public transportation, hospitals, and pharmacies. The government and quarantine authorities are also in a position that they should not relax yet, but there have been no major issues related to quarantine recently, so they are preparing to switch to their daily lives by turning some regular briefings in writing. The WHO Secretary-General also said, "Marathoners should not stop until they reach the finish line, and they should play harder with all their remaining strength," and said the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is visible in the future.
Sources :
https://kiss.kstudy.com/thesis/thesis-view.asp?key=3770410
https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20210226001018&wlog_tag3=naver
https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20210329091700004
http://www.m-economynews.com/news/article.html?no=28534
https://www.dailyt.co.kr/newsView/dlt202108060005
Image sources :
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/coronavirus-virus-blood-plasma-5174671/
