AUTHOR: TERRYOPRAH MAGETO

TEL NO: 0711153700

EMAIL: terryoprah18@gmail.com
EFFECTS OF COVID-19 TO YOUNG ADULTS
Covid-19 was first detected in China in the year 2019. It is a viral disease
that is easily transmitted through coughing, sneezing or even handshakes from
infected persons. From China the disease spread so fast throughout the world
until it was declared a world pandemic and it had no cure or any known
treatment since it was a new infected.
The first case in Kenya was reported in March 2020 where a Kenyan
arrived from the United States of America and was confirmed to be having the
virus. The country went into a panic mode since those who were found with the
virus had to be isolated and hospitals did not have the capacity to handle so many
cases at the beginning.
The Kenyan government came up with containment measures to help
save lives in the country. These containment measures included: closure of
schools, universities and even colleges. This was followed by companies,
government offices, churches, bars and restaurants either closing down, down-
sizing, curfews and even cessation of movement.
These containment measures had adverse effects on the young adults.
These effects include:
i. Delayed or extended college and universities opening: Most of the young
adults are in colleges and universities and since they were closed, this
delayed most of them from completing or even graduating. This made
most of the students start being demoralized.
ii. Job cuts: This affected those who were working so that they could pay for
their school fees or even keep their families afloat. Loss of income made
their livelihoods shatter.
iii. Business closure: Those who were running small businesses had to be shut
down due to the constriction measures such as curfews, travel bans or
even cessation of movement. This made most young adults fail to put food
on the table.
 iv. Pay cuts: Most of the companies had to cut the employees’ salaries due to
reduced working hours. This made most of the people fail to repay their
loans or even sustain themselves. It is through failure to repay loans that
most of the financial institutions had to confiscate their properties making
the young adults fail to know where to start.
v. Those who lost their jobs or even properties were faced with stress thus
leading to most of them committing suicide or even anger which led to the
young adults hurting others.
vi. Drugs: This came about when jobs were lost hence the young people had
nothing to keep them busy thus indulging in drugs and other substances
that ended up ruining their lives leading most of them to seek help from
rehabilitation centers.
vii. Travel bans: Most of the young adults were locked in foreign countries
with no source of income and failed to see their loved ones. Locking people
in foreign countries brought a lot of fear and uncertainty.
viii. Stigma and mental health: Those found with the virus were distanced from
the society which stigmatized them and thus leading to poor mental
health.

Since not every emerging issue has a bad effect on people, Covid-19 also
brought some positive effects. One being discovery of talents and hence finding
new ways of earning a living. Most of the young adults had to look for a way to
survive despite having lost their jobs.