COVID-19 - Environment, Economy, And Energy: Note from South Africa

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) started in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and quickly spread to other parts of the world at lightning speed leaving devastating effects in its tracks. As a result,governments in different countries imposed several contingency measures such as lockdown, stay at home, work from home, study and meet virtually, quarantine and closure of international borders to curtail the spread of the virus and to flatten the curve of infection in their respective countries. Even though the containment measures had positive effects in curtailing the spread and flattening the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic there are also negative aspects such as the closure of businesses, loss of jobs, economic uncertainty and depression. Many articles have been written in the medical field related to the pandemic,however, there has been no study on the impact of the pandemic with respect to the environment, energy, and economy in South Africa. Thisinitial study uses COVID-19 data collected from social media and network services in South Africa to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the environment, economy and energy.