The impact is horrible and huge. Health is wealth so when a person is not healthy, so he is not wealthy. What more if we are talking of hundreds and thousands, not only in one place but in many places?
In the Philippines, there is such a recorded case of death of a Chinese (from Wuhan, China) who went to Cebu City then Bohol. Chinese businessmen and tourists helped the economy as President Rodrigo Duterte, a political and economic strategist, allowed trade deals despite some disputes. However, with the coronavirus outbreak, there have been some immediate entry bans to protect the health of the Filipinos. This is a sudden hardest hit to some industries like tourism, aviation, logistics, and real estate, to name a few.
We know that it is not easy to put up a business and make it grow. It takes years to sustain it, to reach at least the breakeven point and to get revenues. Many companies are funded by bank loans. The bank money comes from depositors, big and small, so if those companies cannot pay them, it will affect the banking industry, the insurance industry, and their depositors.
Some companies offered their stocks to the public, so when the business is slow, the stock market is sad but those who have money will take advantage of the lower prices of stocks.
Many people will lose their jobs. The government offers free training so those without jobs can learn skills not in their industry so they can apply for jobs in other categories. But the challenge here is while undergoing training they must have sources of revenues for themselves and their families to survive.
Many millennials as they are now more aware of financial literacy, invested in real estate like condominium units, etc. with the hope that they can double the money in 10 years and perhaps have a passive income later. But with loss of jobs, they cannot pay, so they will lose their units as they will cancel the contract unless they can sell them to others, or the property owner has the buy-back policy. I know some friends who have paid their reservation fees and equity for some months and all went to nothing after they failed to pay after some time. Perhaps this is the best time to contact them and restructure payables in such a way that it can be affordable, or consolidate all similar cases, and offer them a co-sharing opportunity in a unit if their total payments amount to a single unit purchase so it will be a win-win situation because the property developer has still to pay maintenance costs and incur building depreciation expense.
Many local, national and international events were canceled. Most of them were booked many months in advance, and the companies already prepaid for some expenses.
Flights, due to bans, and also due to virus scare, even for those countries without bans, are canceled, so the aviation industry is bleeding as this means huge amounts of money to be refunded, and they will have no business for many months (or more) but they continue to pay for their monthly expenses.
The question is for how long will it last? Nobody can tell. All businesses have fixed and variable expenses per month. Whether there is a business or not, fixed expenses are there. The opportunity costs are huge. The losses are substantial figures, for sure.
If many people have no sufficient money to spend on their basic needs, products, and services, the economic wheel slows down.
If many people have no sufficient money to spend on their basic needs, products, and services, the economic wheel slows down.
I think the first thing to be done here is to have massive awareness campaigns about self-protection from high echelons down to the grassroots level. We must conquer the virus scare and let the world know that we have the very right screening procedures for those coming to our territories. All points of entries (land, air and water) must be highly secured.
There must be the right quantity of stock of diagnostic kits, medical supplies such as face/surgical/N95 masks, medical gloves, goggles, hand sanitizers, alcohol 70% solution/antiseptic disinfectant, disinfectant spray, and disposable protective coverall/hazmat suits. If possible, these must be produced/manufactured in our own country, according to international standards.
Since there are many licensed health practitioners already working overseas, the government must provide free continuing education and review classes to nurses until they pass the board examinations. With attractive salaries, they can serve better as barangay health workers to disseminate the right information among the local people so it will be more on the preventive approach.
Every family is the basic unit of society, so the cleanliness must start at home. The Department of Health in cooperation with the private sector can do massive campaigns for this. Companies may include in their Community Social Responsibility program the distribution of free soap, thermometer, alcohol bottle dispenser, hand sanitizer and towel among local residents of places where their companies are based.
Online businesses must be supported. We create more technopreneurs and mentors as businesses can be done at home. The ease of putting up a business and renewing such, with reduction and/or cancellation of government fees, must be considered.
There must be the right quantity of stock of diagnostic kits, medical supplies such as face/surgical/N95 masks, medical gloves, goggles, hand sanitizers, alcohol 70% solution/antiseptic disinfectant, disinfectant spray, and disposable protective coverall/hazmat suits. If possible, these must be produced/manufactured in our own country, according to international standards.
Since there are many licensed health practitioners already working overseas, the government must provide free continuing education and review classes to nurses until they pass the board examinations. With attractive salaries, they can serve better as barangay health workers to disseminate the right information among the local people so it will be more on the preventive approach.
Every family is the basic unit of society, so the cleanliness must start at home. The Department of Health in cooperation with the private sector can do massive campaigns for this. Companies may include in their Community Social Responsibility program the distribution of free soap, thermometer, alcohol bottle dispenser, hand sanitizer and towel among local residents of places where their companies are based.
Online businesses must be supported. We create more technopreneurs and mentors as businesses can be done at home. The ease of putting up a business and renewing such, with reduction and/or cancellation of government fees, must be considered.
On tourism, since the Philippines is gifted with natural resources, we can develop our agri-tourism. The basic need of men is food. Beverages can also be plant-based. If at least we can meet the basic needs at our own ground, there is sustainability; we win some fights somehow. Farm-to-table fruits and vegetables will reduce our expenses and will contribute to healthy living as we know they are fresh and organic.Likewise, medical tourism must be promoted. This serves as a training ground for our local healthcare practitioners. There are also foreigners who want to take healthcare-related courses in our country as it is known for deploying warm, caring, clean and English-speaking healthcare professionals across the globe. Some areas can be considered as a home for the elders, and for the expatriate retirees, who need Filipino healthcare services. But since avoiding crowds is one of the health authorities' instructions and also there are some travel bans, telemedical schooling is an option.
As space rental business is hurt by this 2019-nCorV, those spaces (hotel rooms, condos, function halls, etc.) must be sprayed with disinfectant to be done only by certified professional people in that field because we just cannot trust anyone to do it. The key players must figure out how to have them running safe and functional again. There should also be an air extraction to be done on a regular basis.
Communication is very important as time is of the essence when there is an emergency. In a country with 7,100+ islands, the challenge for a telecommunications company is the provision of an internet connection with very high speed at an affordable price. We need more towers to reach those who are in remote areas and provide them with cheap if not free mobile phones.
We can passionately move heaven and earth by joint efforts and resilience. It is a gargantuan challenge but we can do beat this together.
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Photo credits: Pixabay
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