Unprecedented Response to COVID-19 by Governments Prohibits Physical Contact and Cripples World Economy
After officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Mar. 11, 2020 that outbreaks of a mutated coronavirus (COVID-19) had become a global pandemic and urged countries to take strong action to stop its spread, the governments of countries representing one-third of the world’s population closed borders, restricted or halted travel between and within countries and ordered healthy people to essentially eliminate physical contact with each other by staying in their homes. The president of the Philippines even gave authority to shoot down and kill anyone violating the country's lockdown orders. The halt to travel and closure of schools, businesses, stores and shopping centers, restaurants, theaters, sports arenas, gyms, beaches, parks and recreation areas, churches, and other places, where children are educated and people conduct business, shop and engage in recreation, sent stock markets into a sudden nosedive and has crippled the world’s economy.