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COVID-19, Climate Change and Challenges: Bangladesh Perspective to Fight Against the Pandemic Condition

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COVID-19, Climate Change and Challenges: Bangladesh Perspective to Fight Against the Pandemic Condition International Journal of Research and Innovation In Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume IV, Issue X, October 2020|ISSN 2454-6186 COVID-19, Climate Change and Challenges: Bangladesh Perspective to Fight against the Pandemic Condition Abu Taher Muhammad Abdullah1, Israt Jahan2 1Additonal Superintendent of Police, District Police, Thakurgaon, Bangladesh, Studied MA Criminology, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, UK 2MA Digital Media, School of Computing and Digital Media, London Metropolitan University, UK Abstract: This study investigated the impacts of COVID-19 and societies to a great extent (Mende and Misra, 2020). Global climate change, and the challenges of these events from responses to fight COVID-19 have ameliorated climate Bangladesh’s perspective with the qualitative method of change parameters-emissions, air, or water quality. But global research. Thematic analysis followed for synthesizing data climate change expedites the effects of COVID-19 in a way collected from secondary sources. The total number of deaths where public and environmental health are intertwined, and found in Bangladesh 4,881 (1.4%), whereas 943,433 (4%) deaths found globally from COVID-19 disease. The highest number of this connects from the vulnerable to the wealthy. As this deaths in a day was 64 in Bangladesh on 30th June 2020. The infectious disease is zoonotic-spread from animal to human- maximum rate of confirmed cases from COVID-19 infection was COVID-19 demonstrates its severity (Jones et al., 2020). 26.7% in people between 31-40 years of age group. Whether male However, this pandemic creates an opportunity to learn and to represented more confirmed cases (M=72%, F=28%) and deaths mitigate future calamities by recognizing the correlation (M=78%, F=22%) than female. Death tolled highest at Dhaka between COVID-19 and global climate change (Mende and City in Bangladesh, estimating 1547 persons. There are 7,155 Misra, 2020). beds and 370 ICU beds for COVID-19 patients. Due to climate change effect the air of Dhaka city become unbreathable, hence, Bangladesh, a South Asian country with an emerging COVID-19 patients require fresh air with healthy lungs to economy, has encountered a demographic and survive. Cyclone Amphan took the lives of 31 people, affecting epidemiological transition with its rapid urbanization and an approximately Tk 1,100 crore damages amid the COVID-19 increase in life expectancy gradually (Mohiuddin, 2020). It outbreak. Floods affected a total of 2,246,472 people in 18 estimated 160 million people, securing the seventh most districts and heavy rainfall rampaged Rohingya camps in Cox’s populous country in the world, expecting to be doubled by Bazar. Predominantly, challenges encountered from COVID-19 2050 (Islam and Kibria, 2020). Bangladesh has identified the and climate change are more population; lack of ‘testing, tracing th and isolating’, ‘Health Care Services’, coordination and first coronavirus disease case on 8 March 2020. It has awareness; difficulty in policing and management of Rohingyas, followed the guidelines of the World Health Organization natural calamities, and transport bans. However, this research is (WHO), including handwashing, sanitation, physical not beyond the limitation of empirical observation which will be distancing, and home quarantine. While it was challenging to a future endeavor in the field. prevent the spread of this pandemic due to ‘congestion, Keywords: COVID-19, climate change, challenges, inadequate water supply, poor sanitation facilities, poverty Bangladesh, social distancing and lack of awareness’ (Islam and Kibria, 2020). Besides, Bangladesh is not beyond the global threats of climate change, I. INTRODUCTION which is the consequence of global warming, connecting with tropical cyclones (Pawlowski, 2020). Amid worldwide OVID-19 pandemic outbreak is a pressing concern for quarantine in this COVID-19 pandemic, super cyclone every government in the world which turns it into a C Amphan struck Bangladesh on 20th May 2020. This cyclone global crisis. This coronavirus disease caused huge confirmed was the most devastating while millions of people need help cases and deaths, resulting in 213 countries affected (WHO, since the Covid-19 pandemic has still existed in the country 2020a). It has triggered unprecedented behavioral changes as (ibid:11). Whereas the country has just 127,000 hospital beds global norms which confined people and induced them to of which 91,000 of them in government-run hospitals maintain social distancing (Manzanedo and Manning, 2020). (Mohiuddin, 2020). Its economy is losing BDT 33 billion While this crisis has affected all spheres of life and work and every day from its service and agriculture sectors during the impacted the global economy tremendously. Also, this crisis nationwide lockdown. However, there are very little offers insights on the global climate crisis, as there are many researches regarding COVID-19, climate change, and parallels between the COVID-19 crisis and the imminent challenges from COVID-19 and climate change in global climate emergency. COVID-19 and global climate Bangladesh. The current research will have an insight into the change are interlinked, and proper understanding of these linkages would be crucial for consumers, companies, and www.rsisinternational.org Page 111 International Journal of Research and Innovation In Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume IV, Issue X, October 2020|ISSN 2454-6186 impacts of COVID-19 and climate change and the challenges Humidity, temperature, and air pollution are effective in from these events on Bangladesh’s perspectives. spreading the virus other than ‘the contact and respiratory transmission of the COVID-19 virus’ (Coşkun et al., 2020). In II. LITERATURE REVIEW the propagation of COVID-19, population density and wind The current global health threat is the ongoing pandemic of have been accounted for 94% of the variance, in contrast, the respiratory disease that was recently given the name climate variables-temperature, rain, number of sunny days, air coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) (Fauci et al., 2020). pollution, and altitude-are not inter-related with COVID-19 Covid-19 was recognized in December 2019, showing to be (Lai et al., 2020; Şahin, 2020). Besides, the number of caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), relating to the COVID-19 cases has been impacted by population density virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). upon the influence of wind speed (9%). As such, the air is a Importantly, ‘the Covid-19 outbreak has posed critical threatening factor for humans along with wind speed that challenges for the public health, research, and medical increases air circulation (Coşkun et al., 2020:1-6). The weekly communities’ other than SARS (2002-2003) and the Middle occurrence of Cyprus Lows and clinical seasonal Influenza in East respiratory syndrome (MERS) from 2012 till to date. Israel are correlated in recent years significantly ‘concerning While COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, individual climate variables like precipitation, temperature, China (Zu et al., 2020). Subsequently, infections spread specific humidity, and relative humidity’ (Hochman et al., across China and other countries around the world. Then, the 2020). However, the typical cold weather affects directly or Chinese public health, clinical, and scientific communities indirectly Influenza through the epidemiological triangle recognized ‘the new virus and shared the viral gene sequence (Fuhrmann, 2010). For instance, the host susceptibility to to the world’. Notably, WHO declared the outbreak a Public infection in Cyprus Low days increased for seasonal hormonal Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, changes, relating to a reduction in exposure to sunlight. Low 2020. Later on, WHO named the disease caused by the novel levels of Vitamin D underscore the immune response (Cannell coronavirus “coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19) on et al., 2006), on the other hand, high levels reduce the risk of February 12, 2020 (Zu et al., 2020: E15). Influenza and COVID-19 infections and death simultaneously (Merzon et al., 2020). There is a relation between fluctuations Complete viral genome analysis revealed that the virus caused in the duration of social contacts and weather conditions the current pandemic ‘shared 88% sequence identity to two (Willem et al., 2012). bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses’, but differ from SARS coronavirus (Zu et al., 2020). Coronavirus evolved as ‘an The current pandemic of COVID-19 is a trajectory of causing enveloped and single-stranded ribonucleic acid named for its catastrophic global upheaval, altering geopolitical and socio- solar corona-like appearance due to 9–12-nm-long surface economic norms (Rowan and Galanakis, 2020). While various spikes’ (Wei et al., 2020). While four major structural governments are responding to this disease frantically with proteins are encoded around the coronaviral genome on the ‘staggering financial stimulus recovery’ measures. As such, envelope, where spike protein (S) binds to angiotensin- ‘enhanced innovation’ to create new technologies in the agri- converting enzyme 2 receptor that intermingles ‘subsequent food sector will introduce new products and services to fusion between the envelope and host cell membranes to aid address challenges and opportunities for the sustainability of viral entry into the host cell’ (Kirchdoerfer et al., 2016; Xu et the industry. For example, “Paludiculture-the development
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