COVID-19 virus or coronavirus which took a toll on human lives, the

economy, health and lifestyle of us all was not a fly by but a thing to stay! This
disease can be said to be a global outbreak which disturbed the entire living
and functioning of human lives, industries, businesses and environment. The
physical and mental world are both affected by the disease. The government
and a lot of medical institutions, individuals and communities are coming up
with new and effective ways to deal with the virus. Now all these various
measures taken to control the spread of the dangerous virus have significant
effects on the environment therefore we can say that COVID-19 has impacted
the environment in positive and negative manners, by reviewing the scientific
literature.

You know how there is a saying that there is beauty in disguise?

When the world is facing adverse impacts and the situations were made tough
for all of us humans, there was something beautiful happening too.

The air quality index showed a positive change. In many parts of the world a
notable difference in the air quality was seen. With us all not being able to
travel even for important and daily work, the roads were left free of traffic for
quite some time and a lot of vehicles harmful gas emissions stopped. And in
turn we were able to breath fresh air. We gave the environment the required
break to heal and recover itself and it did!

GHGs emission lessened, specially the tourist spots which were crowded and
overused got a break, the pressure was lifted off and some restoration of the
ecological system took place.Water pollution got into control as after she’s the
river banks were empty, people valued the resources they were being able to
use, the industries and authorities who took care of
recycling water got enough time to complete the circle of looking into water
recycling, water cleansing. Lastly, another positive impact of the coronavirus
is that since the world at large was left untouched with people locked in their
houses- noise pollution got in control. Social places that used to cause so much
noise pollution finally were seen empty.

Now talking about the negative consequences of COVID 19, a few industries
were most affected by it. Like the medical industry. There was an overflow of
medical waste which led to mismanaged waste disposal. Haphazard use and
disposal of disinfectants, masks, gloves; the burden of untreated waste
continuously endangered the environment. The testing and research on
COVID also led to waste of chemicals at large. Due to the fear of getting the
virus home people who used to feed animals or animals who used to survive
on waste bins or left over food items faced scarcity of food. The uncertainty of
when the situation would change got everybody to buy ration in bulk which
again disturbed the production and distribution of food raw materials.

It is expected that the proper implementation of the proposed strategies might

be helpful for global environmental sustainability.

We need to plan ahead and plan proper to be able to minimise negative effects
and step back into the normal making sure we don’t disturb the positive
consequences that we noticed.