COVID-19 and Market Failure

Globally, the first case of COVID-19 emerged in China. It later spread to almost all parts of the world. If we exclude China, which has been accused of withholding information on deaths, then United States (US), India, and Brazil are the most affected countries in the world. COVID-19 is contagious and a rapidly spreading disease virus. Within a short span of time, it has spread all over the world and people across the globe are grappling with it. Globally, over 4.6 million people have lost their lives with approximately 224.6 million COVID-19 positive confirmed cases (John Hopkins Corona Resource Center 2021). A similar kind of situation had erupted during World War I, when the outbreak of Spanish flu infected almost one-third of the world’s population and claimed approximately 50 million lives worldwide (Roser 2020). These are only estimated figures on casualties since records were not being properly maintained those days. Though the number of deaths caused due to COVID-19 may appear to be lower than that of the Spanish flu, the dreadful nature of COVID-19 is no way less than the Spanish flu, especially when medical science is far more advanced in the contemporary age.

When the spread of this virus took a noxious turn all over the globe, the World Health Organization, on 30 January 2020, declared this as a public health emergency of international concern. Developed nations are still struggling with strategies to be adopted to control the situation. Access to services has been limited and delivery of essential items has been hard to manage during this time of crisis. The recurring demand and supply shocks have created an imbalance in the economy. The supply chain logistics have been heavily affected by this variation, which makes it difficult to imagine the long-term implications of COVID-19, and the expected effects would also be different in different parts of the world (Seric et al 2020).