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Several businesses and commercial establishments in Germany opened their doors during the week, as the country decided to relax the lockdown conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic after several weeks. The easing of restrictions which came with strict instruction of following social distancing rules also came with a warning that should the easing of restrictions result in spiking up of the infection rates then a second and stricter lockdown would be inevitable. The country was one of the earliest in Europe to swiftly respond to the threat of the pandemic that has severely battered the European continent and amongst a first few to have imposed a lockdown. Till date the pandemic has infected nearly 148,000 people in that country, killing as many as 5,100 and more than 87,000 being reported to have recovered. Recently the growth rate of the infection has shown signs of abatement prompting authorities to relax the lockdown conditions a bit.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, just prior to the easing of the restrictions thanked her countrymen for their disciplined and watchful attitude that has helped a great deal in the country slowing down the pandemic threat. But she warned that if there is any laxity in that attitude, a new set of restrictions will be round the corner. She further stated that it must be kept in mind that the pandemic is still in effect and that the country is far from coming out of the woods. The infection is under control in the country only to the extent that it is not rising, she said and warned against a false sense of security that could easily lead to a second wave of infections. On the streets, however the mood among the people is sombre, shopkeepers and business owners know that business will not be as usual, they have put in place several rules and restriction on people who might enter their stores. Some have rearranged their stores so that people do not come in proximity of each other and others have put in restrictions on the number of people who can enter their stores at one time. The student’s community is also happy since the government has decided to hold exams on time, albeit under strict hygiene and social distancing measures. Several of these businesses, however, are thankful to the government who has given them an investment grant of €9,000 to help themselves tide through this crisis. Lately, the country had been marred by tensions when people in several parts of the country had come out and protested against the lockdown and its impact on their livelihood. There are several other in the country who are elated by the sense of solidarity that the entire country has shown and have come forward to support each other in this hour of crisis. The people though are aware that they are still at war with the pandemic and it will be a long time before life comes to normal.
The economic situation across the world is very bad. Million of people both in the developed and undeveloped world are looking larger worries of unemployment and starvation. The sudden stoppage of business activity levels is particularly daunting the daily wage-earning people with their employers also facing the risk of foreclosures. The IMF in its report on the state of the world economy released last week had stated that the world economy is going to shrink by about 3 per cent because of the pandemic and that the world is going to see a financial crisis worse than the great depression of the 1930’s. Several countries have taken unprecedented measures to deal with the economic fallout of this crisis, United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, and many other countries have lowered their official interest rates by record levels. Stimulus measures are being rolled out every large country to deal with the slowdown. Governments are also initiating direct cash transfer schemes in order to protect small businesses from collapsing and issuing loans on lenient terms to larger ones so that they may not lay off a significant number of their workforce. The situation in several countries has deteriorated so much that governments have to establish camps to provide cooked food to destitute. There are a few sectors however which are doing good business amidst this crisis. The pharmaceutical sector, healthcare sector and online retailing sector have particularly stood out and are doing good business during these times. Providing essential health care services during such times of a healthcare crisis, the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors importance has never been so accentuated. Similarly, the online retailing sector has emerged as one of the critical services that are keeping the citizens across the world provisioned when lockdown conditions are in place. Both of these industries have enjoyed exception in doing business across the world for the highly critical services they provide.
The coronavirus pandemic is showing no signs of abatement. It is still infecting a greater number of people every day. While the pandemic started in the east in China with its Wuhan province as the epicentre, but soon the epicentre shifted to Italy in Europe and from there again to the United States of America. It would take at least another couple of months more for the disease to climb down in its rate of spread and lethality, till that time life will not be normal anywhere.
Germany is the first country in Europe which has allowed any easing of restrictions. Before that China has also relaxed some relaxation in the movement of people in Wuhan, with life slowly returning to normalcy. Till now, not much untoward spike in infection rates have been reported from China. The German experiment though, will be a test case for Europe and the rest of the western world. The way things turn out in Germany in the next few weeks will also say a lot about the potency of the virus and how crippled it can make the human race.
In the meantime, the people of Germany, the government of Germany and the rest of the world would be hoping that things do get back to normal in that country so that everybody else may also feel confident and follow suit.
