COVID-19 transmits when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets and small airborne particles containing the virus. Severe illness is more likely in elderly patients and those with certain underlying medical conditions. As of 28 April 2023, the pandemic had caused 764,473,623 cases and 6,915,273 confirmed deaths, making it one of the deadliest in history.ĬOVID-19 symptoms range from undetectable to deadly, but most commonly include fever, dry cough, and fatigue. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Attempts to contain it there failed, allowing the virus to spread to other areas of Asia and later worldwide. The novel virus was first identified in an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. In 24 countries we support women’s rights organizations to advance women and girls’ rights.The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We focus on gender in the 68 countries we work in. Out of the 14.3 million people Oxfam has reached since the start of the pandemic, 54% have been women and girls. Authoritarianisms and sexist populisms have been reinforced during the pandemic, and progressive leaders, many of them women have suffered attacks and reduction to resources. The pandemic has also had an impact on the civic space, limiting the ability of women rights organizations and other progressive voices to participate in this critical juncture. The gap to address this can be attributed to the absence of women, in all their diversity, from decision making on the pandemic at all levels, international, national and local levels. Much of the global response to pandemic has not considered the gendered, intersectional impacts, with women in poverty and vulnerability, racialized, young and in reproductive age etc. In conflict-affected countries, the coronavirus pandemic adds an additional level of threat and insecurity for women,girls and non-binary people linked to rising social and economic pressures and lockdown measures. Domestic violence may also increase during and after conflict. It often increases when a breakdown of law-and-order leads to impunity for the perpetrators of violence. Gender-based violence is rooted in unequal gendered power relations. It is estimated that if the lockdown had continued for 6 months in July 2020, 31 million additional gender-based violence cases could be expected globally. Support services for women and girls being faced with violence were hard-hit due to reduction in prevention and protection efforts and social services. Violence against women and girls has rapidly increased in the wake of the movement restrictions linked to the pandemic. All this, together with the fact that women are often the first to skip meals or eat smaller portions, means women are often the first to go hungry. The lockdowns caused by the pandemic have only added to the food insecurity of women, more than men, given the prevalent social norms, unequal systems of food production and wage gaps. Moreover, they are often the most vulnerable within these groups because of systemic barriers such as discrimination in terms of land ownership and pay. Women make up a significant proportion of groups such as informal workers and smallholder producers that have been hit the hardest by the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the MENA region, 40% of total expected job losses due to the pandemic are of jobs held by women. While these jobs are essential for the pandemic response, they have long been undervalued and poorly paid, putting these women essential workers at greater risk of being exposed to the virus themselves. They are also most of the domestic workers in the world. Globally, women make up 70% of the health and social care workforce. Women have kept the world running during the Covid-19 response, picking up the care workload in clinics, in homes and at the workplace. Shouldering the responsibilities of care work Early marriage girls stand at higher risk of intimate partner violence. At least one million pregnant school-age girls risked losing their access to education in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of Covid-induced school closures. It has been estimated that the pandemic will also reverse the gains of the last 20 years of global progress made on girls’ education, resulting in turn in increased poverty and inequality. Globally, 13 million more child marriages are projected to take place by 2030 due to school closures and to increased poverty resulting from the pandemic.
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