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Covid-19 and South Asia: A ‎Response and Beyond

Mr. Sarbajeet Mukherjee

Volume 3 Issue 3 | Sep 2020

DOI: 10.31841/KJEMS.2021.26

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Abstract

The first human supposedly had walked out from East Africa some 200,000 ‎years ago, and we do ‎know today, that some of the diseases we are faced ‎with, could be as old as 10, 000 years. For the ‎past 100 years’ mankind has ‎been challenged by numerous lethal diseases which have ‎transcended ‎international boundaries and have been defined as pandemic. Novel corona ‎virus or, ‎‎2019-nCoV is one such pandemic disease. This coronavirus disease has ‎affected the entire world ‎population since late 2019 including that of South ‎Asia. South Asia which is home to one-fourth of ‎the world’s population ‎distributed amongst eight countries namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, ‎‎Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Interestingly, some of ‎these countries in ‎the region like Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan are found to ‎have performed well as to the UN ‎Human Development Index and its health ‎indicator is concerned, while, the rest like, India, ‎Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal ‎haven’t done well in improving the health of their teeming millions. ‎Therefore, ‎the response of these countries has been varied in nature as to tackling of the ‎‎outbreak of this pandemic is concerned. The study makes an endeavor to ‎discuss the status, ‎nature of response to COVID-19 and the likely impact on ‎governance system in these South Asian ‎countries. ‎‎ ‎

Keywords: ‎ Pandemic, Coronavirus disease, South Asia, governance‎