The 6 Sectors That Were Affected the Most Due to the Spread of COVID-19

SARS Cov-2 or COVID-19 virus is a highly contagious disease that arrived as an unwelcome guest in 2020. An outbreak of this virus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has spread to several other countries in a few months after the first case was reported.

As a result of its highly contagious capacity, COVID-19 has been able to establish itself within a short period in approximately 80% of the countries. In response, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

In many countries, a complete lockdown was imposed on all activities to prevent this virus from spreading, forcing industries and people to cease their normal routines and stay home. Hence, many business sectors in India were hard hit by this pandemic, which forced them to declare bankruptcy.

In this article, we will cover the aspects of the business sector that have been affected the most by this disease. Furthermore, it is expected that the recovery of these sectors will take time as people are becoming more cautious than they used to be.

Top Sectors Vastly Affected By COVID-19

To cover the business sectors that were most severely impacted by this virus would take too much room in this article. We have nonetheless narrowed down some of those top businesses that came close to a complete halt at some point. This is something that has never been witnessed in the history of the 21st century.

The pandemic was a nightmare for the poor and middle-class who were employed or attached to these businesses. To date, these sectors have not recovered as the virus continues to spread throughout the country in waves. To gain a deeper understanding of this situation, the following business sectors are listed in detail below:

1. Retailers

Common retailers are arguably the hardest hit sector due to COVID-19. After the lockdown was enforced back on March 23, 2020, all retail stores in our country were forced to close completely until May, when they were allowed to reopen under certain conditions.

Under strict hygiene protocols, only a few services were permitted to operate, such as grocery, pharmacy, hospital, and laboratories.

In many parts of India, we are still experiencing several waves of this virus. This has caused retailers to struggle to make sales because people tend to go outside only for essentials.

2. Tourism Sector

Due to this pandemic and lockdown across the country, the tourism industry was also severely impacted. Numerous restrictions, such as quarantine and testing, caused people to cancel all their vacation plans in 2020, and only a few people choose to travel these days.

Hence, many areas in our country whose economies were fully dependent on tourism revenue like Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and many areas in the south and north-eastern regions were severely affected.

By 2021, however, the situation had somewhat stabilised. After a long break, visitors returned to these tourism spots with their family and friends to enjoy the pleasures of the place. The sector has started to improve slightly, however, due to many waves of this virus, the number of tourists continues to be very low.

3. Hospitality Sector

A large portion of the hospitality industry depends on the tourism industry to get back to normal. Because if people don't go on vacations, they see a small amount of footfall and, therefore, cannot sustain their expenses. They are bound to close their doors.

Furthermore, there have been fewer job and business tours in the sector recently, as many companies have adopted the work-at-home culture, which is one of the major reasons why this sector was negatively affected by the pandemic.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that some players in this industry have gained an advantage during this tumultuous period. This is because the government mostly utilised hotels as quarantine facilities in cities during this period. Therefore, we can conclude that this industry was certainly affected, but not to the same extent as other sectors like construction, retail, and aviation.

4. Construction

A construction project requires tons of manpower to be completed every day. Because the Standard Operating Procedure, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, restricted gatherings of large numbers. Construction and infrastructure sectors were also obligated to stop or delay all ongoing projects immediately after the lockdown was imposed.

However, as the virus was slowly being contained, the government gave this sector a green light after a couple of months. As long as they followed standard procedures laid out by the concerned authorities, such as wearing masks and adhering to a strict time limit, they were allowed to continue their work.

5. Aviation

The whole country followed a Janta Curfew on March 23, 2020, to spread awareness of the ongoing pandemic. This was as a result of which people essentially took part in a lockdown-like simulation. This was also the last day that most of our country's flights took off before we entered complete lockdown.

As this is a highly competitive industry, the companies involved in it suffered huge losses, which led to a great deal of cost-cutting, ultimately resulting in the loss of many jobs in the process. Crew members and pilots also protested against the airline and government as they became financially unstable as a result of this.

6. Automobile

Before the lockdown, India lagged behind many other countries as regards vehicle sales, especially four-wheelers. Despite that, the lockdown proved disastrous for automobile companies as it drastically reduced sales and production.

Many automobile companies experienced an exponential fall in share price after the lockdown, and this sector is slowly recovering; however, it will take a very long time.

With lockdowns like this, people are more likely to become conservative and spend only on essentials. This is because many middle-class families have learned the importance of having a reserve set up for this kind of situation. Accordingly, this sector seems unlikely to perform well this year, but it will do well in the long run.

Conclusion

This pandemic caught everybody off guard, and nobody could have imagined that a virus that caused minor symptoms could take such a negative turn in such a short time. Thus, we have experienced one of the worst financial and employment crises since 2008, which caused massive damage to the system as a whole.

However, it came as a saviour for many businesses, enabling them to grow rapidly during the lockdown period. The number of such businesses is, however, quite small compared to the number of businesses that were severely affected.

Among all, the businesses mentioned above were the most severely affected, and they are still struggling to return to normal. As long as a significant segment of our population gets vaccinated within a few months or perhaps a year, we should be able to eliminate this threat. We should be able to move forward.

Also Read:

1) Rural Marketing in the Post-COVID Era: A Lucrative Space
2) 6 Tips to Get Your Business on Track Post COVID-19
3) How Covid-19 Lockdown has Impacted the Garment Industry?
4) Impact Of COVID-19 On Digital Payments!

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FAQs

Q. Is it wise to start a business in these sectors now?

Ans. Currently, the COVID-19 situation is very uncertain, and no one knows for sure when it will completely end. Therefore, until this existing business is experiencing a healthy monthly recovery, it is not wise to start a new venture in these sectors.

Q. Is there any other sector that has been affected besides the ones listed here?

Ans. As for other sectors, many faced substantial challenges during the lockdown. The good news is that these sectors are getting back to normal relatively quickly compared to the above-mentioned sectors. Among them are local transportation, the food industry (thanks to online delivery platforms), and other e-commerce businesses.

Q. Which sectors have benefited significantly from this pandemic?

Ans. Some sectors of the economy grew dramatically, with most of them linked to online service providers. The lockdown period caused many people to develop the habit of taking advantage of online services. This led to e-commerce, e-conference apps, cloud entertainment services, internet providers, and other food delivery services benefiting the most.