Economic and Administrative Transformations as Repercussions of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Crisis

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Abstract

The Covid-19 outbreak, first detected in China, has infected people in 185 countries. Where its spread left companies around the world calculating their costs day after day (Anadolu Agency, 2020), this outbreak became a pandemic - where the WHO identified the outbreak of Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11 - which resulted in more than 1.4 million confirmed cases and more than 83,000 deaths worldwide. It also raised fears of an economic crisis and an impending recession. Social divergence, self-isolation, and travel restrictions have forced the workforce to decline in all economic sectors and have caused many jobs to be lost. Schools closed, and the need for manufactured goods and products decreased. As a result of the pandemic, the global economy is projected to contract sharply by –3 per cent in 2020, much worse than during the 2008–09 financial crisis (IMF, 2020). In contrast, the need for medical supplies increased significantly (CGTN, 2020). The food sector also witnessed great demand due to panic buying and storing food products. After months of closures restricting work and movement, many countries have begun to lift the strict measures they have taken to slow the spread of Coronavirus (Alasdair,2020). The European countries gradually reopened their economies, following in the footsteps of China, where the virus originated (Changyong & Poul, 2020). However, the economic fallout from the epidemic appears to be one of the biggest generational shocks. Ordinary economic activity was disrupted on an unprecedented scale in peacetime as daily lifestyles were radically transformed.

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