Winning The Battle Against Covid-19

COVID-19 is one type of Coronaviruses, and it first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization considers it a pandemic that has affected the world at many levels. In fact, the fast propagation of the epidemic caused a lot of fear among the world’s population, to the extent that supermarkets ran out of food and toilet paper, pharmacies ran out of sanitizers and latex gloves, and airports, ports, cafés, restaurants, public baths, and schools shut down. Most people followed the news online and stayed tuned inside their homes in quarantine, waiting for the worst to happen at any moment. The fear was great because COVID-19 is a new, unknown, deadly virus that spares no one, and nobody has a clue about the antidote. Today, many scientific centers and institutions in China, America, and Europe are working around the clock on developing a vaccine, but coronavirus is still affecting millions and killing thousands across the world. In this essay, I will talk about some physical and human geographical factors, government oversight, and culture that play an important role in decreasing the rapid spread of the pandemic COVID-19.

Geography plays a very important role in the fight against COVID-19. In the twenty-first century, geographers use advanced tools and geographic technologies to study collected data, analyze it and present it in a manner that would help the world understand complex phenomena. According to Marshall Shepherd, some universities have developed “tracker tools” and “tracking websites” like Geographic Information System (GIS) to help track and predict the diffusion and spread of the coronavirus. Also, in their prediction of what may happen in the future as a result of this epidemic, scientists take into consideration geographical landscapes to study landform and climate about coronavirus. For example, some believe that Africa will not be heavily affected by COVID-19 because geographical landscapes must contain water or humidity of some sort for the virus to live. Therefore, hot and drylands are unbearable and nonlivable for a virus to spread. One of the most famous, accurate, and reliable geographical world maps or dashboards that has been visited by over a billion visitors, including common people and governments, during this month is the Johns Hopkins University dashboard. It presents a lot of data in different categories: number of coronavirus cases in the world, number of deaths, and number of recovered cases (see appendix 1). This kind of map helps people understand, and the more we understand what is going on in the world, the better prepared we will be to fight COVID-19.

Governments across the world have reacted very seriously by taking several strict measures to help decrease the rapid propagation of the current epidemic. For example, the Chinese government placed the entire city of Wuhan under quarantine. In addition, they built two hospitals over one week to fight the fast-spreading virus. The Italian government announced a nationwide lockdown and ordered people to stay at home, and people requested special permission for urgent or needed movement or travel within the country. This way Italy, which is considered the second worst-hit country after China, will be able to limit the rate of infection and death which is growing so fast every day. In Morocco, right after the first few cases of coronavirus infections, the government made a quick and unexpected decision of closing borders with over twenty countries. This decision surprised thousands of tourists who were trapped inside the country and could not possibly travel by any means. In addition, the government came up with several steps to create awareness among citizens and help them understand the need to stay at home to decrease the fast spread and propagation of the deadly virus. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior are constantly posting updates and announcements to keep people informed. In addition, all schools and universities in the public and private sectors have closed down to protect children and young people, to save lives, and to limit the damage caused so far by COVID-19. Nationwide online education in Morocco is quite challenging because of the lack of means and experience in many parts of this developing country. But Morocco, like all other governments, had to take all possible measures to combat this epidemic.

From my own environment, I can tell that culture plays an important role in both helping and hindering our abilities to limit this epidemic. In the Moroccan culture, when people speak they tend to stand close to each other, to the extent that they can smell each other’s breath. In addition, like all Mediterranean, Moroccans do touch each other, hug, and kiss when greeting friends and neighbors every single day. Therefore, with the outbreak of COVID-19, it was very hard for many Moroccans to learn to discipline themselves and teach themselves social distance, which obviously is not part of the Moroccan culture. Another important and positive cultural aspect that helps limit the spread of coronavirus within families is food. With the people’s understanding of the nature of the virus and how to fight it through one’s diet, many Moroccan families have introduced some specific foods in their daily meals to make their immune system stronger. Although children and young people do not usually consume certain foods, they understood the importance of changing their eating habits to fight COVID-19. Vegetation in Morocco is quite rich and varied, so the population has adapted their eating habits by heavily consuming some vegetables like fresh ginger, uncooked garlic, raw onion, and coriander. In addition, they have started consuming a lot of seeds that are cheap and available everywhere, such as flax seeds. With the coronavirus around us, many Moroccan families have replaced mint tea with saffron tea, which is an old traditional way of adding pure saffron filaments to tea, which is very rich in vitamins A and C. Through social distance discipline and traditional eating habits, Moroccan children, young people, and adults are using their culture to help limit the propagation of COVID-19.

To conclude, COVID-19 is a pandemic that has affected the world at social, economic, and political levels. The outbreak started in China, then because of the fast propagation it has spread to over 150 countries, but the population pyramids in Europe have undergone the most damage. In this essay, I have shown that geography, government oversight, and culture do play an important role to decrease the spread of the current epidemic COVID-19. I believe with serious measures and global support the world will conquer this deadly virus, and humans will definitely develop a cure to this disease and win the battle against COVID-19.