Covid-19 and its global implications: A social policy perspective

Covid-19 is still not a history. From 31^st December 2019, the unfateful day when the outbreak of Covid-19 was declared as pneumonia in Wuhan (China) with 44 confirmed cases, to the present day of 15^th December 2021, this deadly pandemic has to its credit more than 274 million reported cases and over 5 million reported deaths all across the world (WHO, 2020). Before the Covid-19, there has been a recorded history of dealing with pandemics at global level such as plague, Spanish flu (191820), Ebola (2014–16), H1N1 2009 virus and such others. These pandemics have been characterised with their high rate of mortality and geographic expanse.¹ With Covid-19, the world witnessed a massive transmission with figures continuously swelling every time with new variants, Delta and Omicron, contributing to the continuity wave after wave. The survivors have continued to succumb to the long-term side-effects such as loss of eye sight, black fungus, memory lapses, weakened immunity, heart diseases and now also the possibility of a relapse. The article makes an attempt to examine the glob al implications of Covid-19 with special reference to the marginalized section of society and suggests the policy perspective to address such pandemics in the future.