COVID-19 Outbreak: How the Pandemic has affected the Businesses Globally
The coronavirus outbreak continues to evolve globally, and over 200 nations are fighting with COVID-19 presently. As of 6 April, 1,285,262 cases and over 70,000 deaths have already been reported due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. The widespread uncontrolled transmission of coronavirus has already affected the lives of individuals worldwide. With the rapid spread of the deadly virus worldwide, the fear and panic amongst the people are spreading even faster, and every industry is getting affected due to this outbreak.
The novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, initially has now spread to other parts of the world while affecting major industries and making survival difficult for the individuals. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, universities, schools, major conferences, malls are shut for now and all the global events are either canceled or postponed in order to avoid the transmission of the deadly virus and stay safe.
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The Economical Downfall
The global economy is expected to encounter a major dropdown during this pandemic; the global GDP growth might dip to below 2% with the outbreak of the deadly virus. Moreover, it is eve depicted to experience drops in other key macroeconomic indicators such as oil prices and interest rates. Because of travel restrictions during the pandemic, there will be a lower demand for jet fuel.
Since China holds a share of 60-90% of exports and 50% of tourism revenues, there are probable chances for businesses to undergo an economic slowdown. And if the pandemic continues to resist, there are probable chances that Japan might get into a recession due to the lack of supply of critical manufacturing parts from China and might have to even cancel the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In the German automotive industry, the country is expected to undergo almost a near-zero growth scenario in 2020 with a decline in vehicle sales. India will be likely affected by the pandemic since it imports most of the electronic goods from China and the supply shortage will really hit the country hard during this.
It is not all a great time for the travel and tourism sector- airlines, tour operators, hoteliers, transport service providers, and restaurateurs are having a really hard time due to the pandemic outbreak at the global level. In the healthcare industry, the shortage of medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnological devices have really made it difficult for healthcare specialists to meet the demands and fight back the pandemic.
“The global economy could shrink by up to 1 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, a reversal from the previous forecast of 2.5 percent growth,” the UN has stated, further cautioning that it might expand if restrictions on the economic actions are extended lacking suitable economic responses.
The major countries that have been hit really hard by the pandemic are US, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, China, Iran, the UK, India, Canada, Belgium, and so on. Businesses in all these countries are really having a hard time and are facing major economic dropdowns, which are really going to take a while to recover and get back to the normal situation. Observing the far-reaching ramifications, every industry is impacted adversely and major industry leaders, including- Facebook, Google, Apple, etc have either shut their operations for now or even stopped business-related traveling in order to stay on the safer side.
Apple
Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, Apple has presently shut down all its 42 stores in China and it will even skip the Q2 Revenue Projection. In fact, the CEO has even asked all its workforce to work from home to avoid traveling for now.
F8 Developer Conference, Facebook’s biggest event had to be called off due to this pandemic and ensure the safety of the participants. It was further decided to carry out videos, live-streamed content, and locally hosted events with the widening transmission of COVID-19 globally. Another major event of Facebook- Global Marketing Summit 2020 also got canceled with the growing COVID-19 concerns.
Google has shut all its offices in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong and has even called off the Google News Initiative Summit. The company has even the annual I/O Developer Conference and all in-person interviews. It has even asked its employees to stay isolated for 14 days who have returned from China recently.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, called off the SXSW event and has even asked its employees to work from home. Since one of the employees got infected from coronavirus, the entire office in Seattle is undergoing a deep cleaning.
Not only this, but numerous other companies including Dell, Amazon, Foxconn, Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Tesla, Nintendo, IBM, Salesforce, Cloudfare have also made the decision to ask their workforce to work from home till the time situation gets to the normal.
Since the consequences of the pandemic continues to evolve and there’s no hope of till when we are under this difficult hour, businesses can continue to work remotely so as to continue the business operations and undergo minimum economic losses. Be prepared, be informed, and stay safe till then!
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