Post Covid-19 Global Society: Issues, Challenges and Edging Forward

Post Covid-19 Global Society: Issues, Challenges and Edging Forward

¹Mr. Suresh Kashinath Ghatge &  *²Prof. (Dr.) Anuradha Parasar

¹Ph.D. Research Scholar, Liberal  Education, Galgotias University, Greater Noida ,Uttar Pradesh, India

²Professor of Liberal Education Galgotia University,  Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.

*Corresponding Author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.70827

Received: 09 June 2023; Accepted: 17 July 2023; Published: 17 August 2023

ABSTRACT

The global society has drastically been affected by the pandemic but the post pandemic era seems to have some serious implications global society. The World health organisation has highlighted in its recent report showing many people have faced much challenge and issues on perspective of health and financial factors. The main purpose of this study is to investigate and in depth evaluation on issues and challenges along with future steps in the global society in the post-COVID era. Supply chain, health infrastructure and employability has depicted as some issues on achieve sustainability in the post-pandemic. Many people have faced many challenges with chronic health diseases, hence WHO has developed some policies and strategies for resilience in health care services. The economic condition has been drastically challenged at the time of pandemic which has fallen under the inflation condition in 2022. This rate has improve in the recent time but still require more robust policies and processes for better improvements in the future. The supply chain resilience and employability opportunities along with proper investments in health infrastructure are some of the aspects that need to be considered moving forward.

Keywords: Global, society, post-pandemic, COVID, pandemic.

INTRODUCTION

COVID-19 started a global issue and has been stated by the World Health organisation (WHO) which declared the virus a pandemic on March 11, 2020. This unpredictable situation has not only affected the health of the citizens but also rigorously created an adverse impact on the economy [1].The economy throughout the world has been drastically challenged, with the developing countries being affected the more than the developed country in terms of economy growth and development. The pandemic situation has created implications for the lives of each person. Hence, all the people have been substantially affected by the job losses, turnover rates, amenities, and disruption in transportation. This adverse effect has continued in many developing countries, which cannot recover due to low standards of management in these places.

Post pandemic situation has led to severe destruction of connectivity, financial and liabilities of citizens in many countries. Urbanization has led to challenges during the post-pandemic and this has affected the creation of designing entire cities to establish safer places [2]. The process of urbanization has changed after the pandemic situation and initial decline has depicted less traffic in the city. In the perspective of health of many humans have been affected with long-term symptoms, which have experienced less effective concerns in formation of better society. The most common symptoms; likewise COVID have appeared in many health of people with post-pandemic conduction, many people have still faced breathlessness, fatigue and cognitive destruction in post-COVID time [3]. It has been declared that people have faced many issues after the pandemic and overall people have common symptoms, which include memory loss, sleeping problems, shortness of breath, or breathing difficulty, anxiety, or depression along with fever.

The post-pandemic situation has affected much of economic development besides that this situation has led to disruption in the job market with changing trends and attitudes. In many places, developed countries have managed to create a huge amount of production with the application of advanced strategies. The new normal situation in the post COVID era has motivated many citizens to vaccination drive, which may create feasible conditions throughout the world [4]. The post-pandemic situation has created a better facility to raise the growth of a hybrid working environment with flexible places.

Post pandemic situation has also created less effective practices in the supply chain due to low levels of production and a lack of employees. Moreover, trading practices have faced an obstruction during the pandemic due to border closure as well as a low level of demand in every country. On the other hand, the educational system also has been affected by the pandemic. Students are getting undisciplined in the prior situation, in the post situation these individuals cannot be able to create better action in the educational institution. Hence, various new challenges persists in the society in the post-pandemic era and thus appropriate steps need to be taken moving forward.

The aim of this study is to develop a standard evaluation on post covid-19 global society: issues, challenges, and future steps in edging forward. The objectives of the study are described below:

• To investigate the socio-economic conditions in a post-pandemic era throughout the world.
• To interpret major issues or challenges of health faced by each peoplein this world after a pandemic
• To evaluate the job market after the pandemic era and its impact on financial conditions with new normal practices.

MATERIALS AND METHOD

The post-pandemic situation has been evaluated with the help of a secondary qualitative method for maintaining the value of evaluation. This method assists in the formation of feasibility within the conduction of this study. The secondary data is mainly collected from different types of books, magazines, articles, and peer-reviewed journals, which are relevant to the major conduction [5]. The data collected through secondary methods helps to form perfection in the justification and evaluation of the main findings to align the subject perfectly. This type of data collection allows for an in-depth investigation of the issue and challenges faced by a post-pandemic situation. In this concern, the research design should be cross-sectional and this helps to evaluate subjects with many variables simultaneously.

The research approach allows adorning reliable data collection and analysis techniques. The inductive process research approach helps to adorn qualitative study based on in-depth observation of major phenomena [6]. Besides that, rescue philosophy should be interpretive which clarifies the belief and reality of many phenomena. This action created batter action in evaluation. This allows us to conduct thematic analysis in the data presentation section. The thematic analysis perfectly aligns overall findings with the topic and the presentation of main insights assists in the depiction of better justification for the topic. This action can ensure the reliability and validity of this topic. The inclusion and exclusion criteria created assurance of ethical conduction.

Table 1: Inclusion and Exclusion criteria table

FINDINGS

Theme 1: Socio-economic conditions in a post-pandemic situation throughout the world

The socio-economic conditions of many developing countries have been drastically affected by the pandemic situation. The post-pandemic situation has somewhat affected the overall economy where this has resulted as the most advantageous. In this concern, global grow this highlighted in the year of 2022 from 5.5% to 4.1%, which is depicted by the World Bank [7]. This highlighted major destruction happened due to the pandemic situation and the negative impact has created less effective global growth in post-pandemic. This condition has been reflected in the supply chain activity after COVID which has led to the rise in the rate of inflation. The mid of2021has highlighted high growth as the supply chain has been managed at this time [8].The disruption of global activity can be related with supply chain disruption that has led to the higher energy prices and has induced inflation in many developing countries. The developed countries have grown their economy through advanced processes and the maintenance of major organizations. The interest rate has been increased to detect major situations, and this consequently anticipation of global inflation increased which keeps elevated in 2022.

Figure 1: Socio-economic scenario throughout the world after pre and post-pandemic

The global index mobility index has looked at the policies, practices, and institutions, which are generated with effective comparison throughout the region, and this uses 10 pillars. The global social mobility index revealed the fostering of social mobility, which maintains the right conditions in the areas of social protection, working conduction, wages, and lifelong learning [9]. This index has revealed achievement within the needs to be perceived with an important element that is wider towards the stakeholder-based model. This model creates capitalism in the growth of the economy, within these all the countries have different index values which can highlight better indexes on the major economic development.

In this concern, Denmark is highlighted as the highest rank in social mobility and the score is 83.5 [9]. The social mobility score has highlighted Finland, Norway, and Sweden which are the most effective in economic conditions after the pandemic. However, South Africa has been ranked 77 and India has highlighted 76 which created the lowest rank as this has faced many issues after the pandemic situation. Moreover, the fourth industrial revolution has created better validation among all the countries due to the advancement and adaptation of the digitized economy. This allows effective comparison with the determination of health, education, technology accesses, opportunity, and working conduction after the pandemic situation.

Figure 2: GDP growth throughout the world in 2022

The global economic development has been depicted as lower than the previous year while rate may be increased in the further years. This policy is needed to bring down inflation which has recently resulted in a deterioration in financial condition. Inflation has created the biggest challenges to the countries across the globe and the financial condition has deteriorated due to the situation. The US economy has shown growth of 1.6% in 2023which is highlighted as slightly higher rather than 1.4%which is seen at 1.4% [10]. The economy throughout the world has faced adverse effects at the time of 2020 after the pandemic situation is highlighted as a hike in economic growth. Hence, the rising rate of inflation and decline in economic activities is one of the biggest challenges being faced by the world in the post-pandemic era. There is also a threat regarding the prospect of suffering from recession and creating the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression..

Global inflation has decreased the rate of GDP growth in 2022which has been highlighted as the biggest barrier to economic development. The increasing level of inflation and in lower commodities has declined more slowly towards the financial condition [11].The rate of inflation has been affected by financial activity and the rate of commodities has been rising which creates negative impact in the lives of common people. The global GDP rate in 2022has even decreased to 2.10% [10], this is for the increasing rate of inflation, and the GDP growth throughout the world has been highlighted as 7% which has been stated in March 2023.This rate has been highlighted by the decreasing rate of inflation which may work with an adaptation of digital transactions or technological advancement. However, tt is estimated that the GDP rate may increase and return to pre-pandemic levels in the future.

Theme 2: Issues or challenges of health faced by each people in this world after a pandemic

The heath infrastructure of the world almost got crippled due to the pandemic and is still recovering from the impact. The world has faced much destruction at the time of the pandemic and health conditions have been adversely affected in which many people have lost their lives. The health system in countries has started showcasing the major recovery after the three yearsCOVID-19 pandemic. The fourth round of the goal pulse survey has been done on the essential health services provided in November 2022 and December 2023 [12]. This action rated reduction of disruption of the delivery of health services regularly. This disruption has been highlighted as a continuation of one-quarter of services within the average among the main companies.

The action has been created based on reports among the countries which highlight that declined action has been depicted with 56% in July-September 2020 to 23% in January 2023. This action has created betterment within the supply chain factors that include a low level of health care interventions and the community of this care has less effectiveness and less concern with main services [13]. Moreover, a limited amount of availability of healthcare workers and medication production have created less effective chances to get care systems. The supply chain has been disrupted after the adverse situation which creates an obstacle in the supply chain system has positively reduced from nearly half to about a quarter within the last years.

This less effective supply chain created a low level of supply of many vaccines and many citizens got duplicate vaccines in many areas. This duplication has led to a high level of distribution among common health people and many people still have some issues with health like breathlessness, fatigue, and fever even after the three years of the pandemic[14]. The services disruption highlighted across the countries in all regions in spite of the signs of recovery and also the income levels with major service areas. Most of the places have dealt with creating better action among the country’s backlogs which has been screening and treating non-communication diseases that lead to adverse impacts due to less careful activity among staff.

Many countries have not perfectly created better action with in the health service due to a lack of reliable staff. Health care service is a vital objective in many most of the affected countries in recent times, which has been impacted greatly in the pandemic situation. The health service has led the delivery of critical action among the disruption within the services which are included with prevention, diagnosis, treatment, disease prevention, and rehabilitation [15]. The vaccination has been perfectly been completed in these countries and healthcare integration is the major counterpart in these countries. Most of the countries have been depicted as seeking better applications for the recovering of the healthcare system.

The pre-pandemic scenario has witnessed the institutionalization of the highest number of innovation services and routine service delivery strategy to mitigate disruption. Many countries were seen to express supportive action within the COVID-19 context and the post situation has led to remaining challenges elevate after the pandemic situation. Many countries have introduced monitoring capabilities in health care services, which help in designing primary health care services. Healthcare action has been oriented on care, policy, planning, governance, and financial funding and planning [16]. This action may create better improvements among the health care development. The Post-pandemic situation has created a chronic situation through out the world and even in India. There are some mild symptoms or health implications that have been highlighted in India even after longer periods of post-pandemic time which now remain unclear[17].There are some cases that have made it clear that the post-pandemic created at least one year more requirements for medical attention. The recent report has highlighted that diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and car diovascular disease have risen in the post-pandemic situation.

Theme 3: The job market after the pandemic era and its impact on financial conditions with new normal practices

The new normal condition of job preparation is mainly to create an opportunity for many people who lost their jobs during the pandemic. Remote working creates flexibility in timing which has attracted many employees to engage with the organization which immensely increases the profit of the main organisation [18]. The future work after COVID is firstly reported about the examination and investigation financial structure of each country which influences the creation of new normal job development. Many countries have demanded a huge amount of labour for raising the profit level and achieving the pre-pandemic levels.

A recent report has highlighted aspects of the post-pandemic situation, which has depicted long-term influences on potential consumption, and recovery of huge amounts of productivity. The labour demand has led to the creation of workforce skills which are required in some countries such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, and the United States [19]. The importance of the physical dimension of works within COVID has been highlighted in the recent period that is quantified with the requirement of profit. The traditional sector cannot perform the highest range of retaining reliable staff due to having less effective facilities in these sectors.

The short period of unemployment has created the highest impact on the OECD estimation, which could be seen within the initial reduction of GDP from 20% to 25%. The OECD region has mainly received many negative effects in the period of confinement. The longer-term impacts mainly depend upon regulation regarding social distancing and the major scale of such consumption setting. The recession period is not avoidable; it affects employment which exceeds the financial crisis.Five OECD regions have at least 30% people potentially at job risk with short-term impact [20]. Social, technological, and political transformation are the powerful forces that have radically shaped the lives of common people. Moreover, the industrial revolution these days has created opportunities in a new normal system in the workplace which changed the work-life balance(WLB).

Private and public organizations have increased the adoption of technologies and this has created an increase in productivity through better objectives. This action may create better understanding and new creativity in organizations in which remote working is the major preference and this arrangement forms a facility among the employees. This working system facilitates limited working hours, strict rules, and traffic congestion [21]. However, this arrangement has also impacted the lives of employees as remote working has pressured employees much and the whole day of work depicted along with many employees have frustrated with the method of working. Overall, it can be said that the job market is not the same in the post-pandemic era due to the changing priorities of the people, remote working and work-life balance.

Theme 4: A sustainable action plan to move forward in the post-pandemic era with a focus on health, employment and supply chain

Organizations have faced turbulent business environments due to the human resources management, supply chain disruption and health concerns. In this regards, sustainability should be maintained in all sectors of the society to bring huge action within the desirable requirement in all health, supply chain, and employment. The increased number of hospitals has to be built in the coming days which restricted main activities on a previous action of vaccination which approved the matters within a few months. Most people have created an impact on the current events, in which 10% -20% of people have experienced long-term effects after the major recovery from a major illness [22]. However, few people have still received much effort during the condition of pandemic, this effect is limited to before, and the WHO has taken some decisions to reduce such cases.

The resilience of the health system may perform better in coping with the main shock. Government should depend upon the specific country’s context with the emergence of new adaptability. Appropriate strategies have to be adopted in the care system, which has created better action on enhancing the health infrastructure “High-quality universal health coverage (UHC)” has adapted for good health care services along with diagnosis and treatment [23]. These providers have argued about the better quality of development and perfection within the better adaptability.

This action have provided an improvement in health sector. The policymakers should adopt better action on the financial activity and the main aim should be dependent upon the national policy, which accesses new respondents and is incorporated with national contexts.

Supply chain ability has created an action on getting rid of operational disruption through contingency planning and forecasting major development. The post-pandemic situation has created betterment in logistics function with the delivery of services and products. Supply chain resilience consists of holistic views, substantial data collection, and organizational development [24]. The ultimate alignment of processes has significantly mitigated the risks of the prospects of financial matters. In this concern, employee satisfaction should be implemented within the major organization. Ambitious and sensitive objectives should adopt in all organizations, which can meet better action on supportive action within the company. Moreover, leadership and training facilities should be there for the organization of perfection in productivity.

DISCUSSION

There is some evidence that the socio-economic situation has been highlighted with less activity in the post-pandemic situation. The economic condition of many countries has been drastically affected due to negative impact in the pandemic situation. The world GDP growth rate has been reduced at the time of the pandemic and this has remained at a lower rate in 2020, though the rate has risen at the time of 2021. The rate of inflation has been higher in 2022 and the rate is projected to further grow in the future. This has been estimated that the GDP growth will gradually reach the pre-pandemic levels and this may be facilitative for society. Society is reeling from the impact of the pandemic even after three years of the pandemic.

The pandemic has created many challenges for all stakeholders in the market moving forward and has had some serious implications for the health, employment and supply chain operations of a business. Moving forward, it is quite important for businesses to align their interests with the interests of the employees and develop jobs accordingly with the proper integration of technology in the entire process. a more resilient supply chain also needs to be developed in order to avoid disruption of goods in the future and reduce dependency on certain regions. Further, it is necessary to increase the amount that is spending by government on health needs of the population in order to improve the health infrastructure of the nation.

CONCLUSION

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought tremendous shock to the global economy, politics, and business and in the lives of all people. The job market has been drastically affected by many unpredictable conditions at the time of the pandemic, which is expected to increase at the time of online job vacancy. This action is demanded with absorption, adaptability, and transformation of health care function. More healthcare workers are the major concern in this activity. The major disruption has been highlighted by the involvement of new technology and growing trade connections. Transportation has been limited till post-pandemic which affects trading connections. The labour market has been drastically affected at the time of the pandemic and after the pandemic situation; most of the company has focused on digitization in the job market.

RECOMMENDATION

This has been recommended in the below about detecting issues and challenges faced by post-pandemic situation:

• The government in every country should take a better situation in creating a better health infrastructure for each citizen in this many countries. The main action should be done in health care services with the presence of appropriate staff members.
• Individuals’ motivation and productivity are created by better action with minimization of reduction. Leaders should understand each individual’s motivation, which builds a respectful relationship between employees and leaders. Team resilience can be developed with the supportive activity of team leaders, which can create perfection in the development of major productivity even after the pandemic.
• The integration of technology can improve resilience within the supply chain management and visibility can improve the supply chain through the identification of gaps and quick address to withstand disruption within the sustainable growth.

REFERENCES

1. Pérez-Fuentes, María del Carmen, et al. “Threat of COVID-19 and emotional state during quarantine: Positive and negative affect as mediators in a cross-sectional study of the Spanish population.” PloS one 15.6 (2020): e0235305.
2. Martínez, Lina, and John Rennie Short. “The pandemic city: Urban issues in the time of COVID-19.” Sustainability 13.6 (2021): 3295.
3. “Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Post COVID-19 condition”, World Health Organisation, 28 March 2023, https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-post-covid-19-condition?gclid=Cj0KCQj wu-KiBhCsARIsAPztUF1wdrPnRkmm-4mVLkuTRTmkOZe4rfdNtffXK3g488eJ7Coy D74CqMYaAvv-EALw_wcB.
4. Alraouf, Ali A. “The new normal or the forgotten normal: contesting COVID-19 impact on contemporary architecture and urbanism.” Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research 15.1 (2021): 167-188.
5. Taherdoost, Hamed. “Data Collection Methods and Tools for Research; A Step-by-Step Guide to Choose Data Collection Technique for Academic and Business Research Projects.” International Journal of Academic Research in Management (IJARM) 10.1 (2021): 10-38.
6. Shelton, Rachel C., Morgan M. Philbin, and Shoba Ramanadhan. “Qualitative research methods in chronic disease: introduction and opportunities to promote health equity.” Annual Review of Public Health 43 (2022): 37-57.
7. “These 5 charts reveal the global economic outlook for 2022”, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, Jan 23, 2022, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/global-economic-outlook-5-charts-world-bank.
8. Kabir, Radifah. “Is A Fourth Wave Of Covid-19 Possible? Should India Be Worried? Here’s What Experts Say”,abp Live, 9th Apr,2023, https://news.abplive.com/health/fourth-wave-of-covid19-possible-should-india-be-worried-about-rising-covid-cases-here-is-what-experts-say-1594332.
9. “Global Social Mobility Index 2020: why economies benefit from fixing inequality” WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 2023, https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-social-mobility-index-2020-why-economies-benefit-from-fixing-inequality/.
10. “World Full Year GDP Growth”, TRADING ECONOMICS, 2023, https://tradingeconomics.com/world/full-year-gdp-growth.
11. Ha, Jongrim, M. Ayhan Kose, and Franziska Ohnsorge. “From low to high inflation: Implications for emerging market and developing economies.” Available at SSRN 4074459 (2022).
12. “New survey results show health systems starting to recover from pandemic”, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 2^nd May, 2023,https://www.who.int/news/item/02-05-2023-new-survey-results-show-health-systems-starting-to-recover-from-pandemic.
13. Zobair, Khondker Mohammad, Louis Sanzogni, and Kuldeep Sandhu. “Telemedicine healthcare service adoption barriers in rural Bangladesh.” Australasian Journal of Information Systems 24 (2020).
14. Khanna, Kanika, et al. “Herbal immune-boosters: substantial warriors of pandemic Covid-19 battle.” Phytomedicine 85 (2021): 153361.
15. Moss, Marc, et al. “A critical care societies collaborative statement: burnout syndrome in critical care health-care professionals. A call for action.” American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 194.1 (2016): 106-113.
16. Hsiao, William CL. “The Chinese health care system: lessons for other nations.” Social science & medicine 41.8 (1995): 1047-1055.
17. Uniyal, Parmita, “World Health Day 2023: 8 chronic illnesses that are becoming common in post Covid-19 world”, HINDUSTAN TIMES, 6th April, 2023, https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/health/world-health-day-2023-8-chronic-illnesses-that-are-becoming-common-in-post-covid-19-world-101680769407827.html.
18. “The future of work after COVID-19”, McKunse & company, 2023, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19.
19. Fuller, Joseph B., et al. “Your workforce is more adaptable than you think.” Harvard Business Review 97.3 (2019): 118-126.
20. Ollo-López, Andrea, Salomé Goñi-Legaz, and Amaya Erro-Garcés. “Home-based telework: usefulness and facilitators.” International Journal of Manpower 42.4 (2021): 644-660.
21. Cruz, Carlos Oliveira, and Joaquim Miranda Sarmento. ““Mobility as a service” platforms: A critical path towards increasing the sustainability of transportation systems.” Sustainability 12.16 (2020): 6368.
22. Shah, Waqaar, et al. “Managing the long term effects of covid-19: summary of NICE, SIGN, and RCGP rapid guideline.” bmj 372 (2021).
23. “How to build a better health system: 8 expert essays”, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, 02 Oct 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/how-to-build-a-better-health-system/.
24. Hosseini, Seyedmohsen, Dmitry Ivanov, and Alexandre Dolgui. “Review of quantitative methods for supply chain resilience analysis.” Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 125 (2019): 285-307.