What Is COVID-19?
A coronavirus is a kind of common virus that causes an infection in your nose, sinuses, or upper throat. Most coronaviruses aren't dangerous.
In early 2020, after a December 2019 outbreak in China, the World Health Organization identified SARS-CoV-2 as a new type of coronavirus. The outbreak quickly spread around the world.
COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 that can trigger what doctors call a respiratory tract infection. It can affect your upper respiratory tract (sinuses, nose, and throat) or lower respiratory tract (windpipe and lungs).
It spreads the same way other coronaviruses do, mainly through person-to-person contact. Infections range from mild to deadly.
SARS-CoV-2 is one of seven types of coronavirus, including the ones that cause severe diseases like Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The other coronaviruses cause most of the colds that affect us during the year but aren’t a serious threat for otherwise healthy people.
How it affected Chelyabinsk?
Like most other cities in Russia, Chelyabinsk was forced into a state of lockdown, where most shops and mall were closed and citizens were advised to stay indoors to avoid the spread of the Coronavirus. This greatly affected the regime of workers and students as large gatherings were not allowed. Like the rest of the world, work and school was moved to online platforms(Zoom, Big Blue Button, Google Meeting) so not to lose time by sitting idle.
The shift to online platforms was an excellent bypass of the Coronavirus but the transmission was far from smooth for most students and workers. The switch to online platforms was sudden which meant most of those without the devices to access these sites ,or even internet, were left behind, and a great struggle began for them. Students, cut off from school facilities, struggled to cope and thus fell behind on school work. Most adults, lacking technological knowledge prior, had no choice but learn to use these platforms. Some sites weren't adjusted to have several users online at a time causing them to crash quite often, further hindering work.
However Distance Learning, and online work meetings have proven to be vital in reducing the spread of the Corona Virus without entirely stopping society, and thus is the best option for now.