2020 Pandemic: How is Quarantine Affecting Social Health?

Undoubtedly, Quarantine is the need of the hour but it has some negative psychological consequences too. Some of these complications can last for three years or more. These complications include PTSD / acute stress disorder, depression, anxiety, fear of infection, constant rage, irritability, irritation, and detachment. And extended quarantine can have worse mental, physical, and social results.  

The COVID-19 pandemic affects all segments of the population and is especially harmful to those social groups living in vulnerable situations. It continues to affect communities, people living in situations of deprivation, elderly people, people with disabilities, youth, and indigenous peoples. Early evidence suggests that poor people disproportionately bear the health and economic impacts of the virus. For example, homeless people are at high risk of the virus because they don't have a safe shelter to live in. People without access to running water, refugees, migrants or displaced persons are also overwhelmingly suffering from the pandemic and its aftermath. It can be either due to limited travel, reduced job opportunities, heightened xenophobia etc.

If the social crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic is not addressed properly through legislation. Inequality, exclusion, discrimination and medium- and long-term global unemployment will increase. When in place, robust, universal social protection systems play a very lasting role. It protects jobs and reducing the incidence of poverty, as they act as automatic stabilizers. That is, they always provide basic income protection, thus enhancing the ability of the people to handle and withstand shocks.

Boredom and loneliness can cause distress. We can tell people who are in quarantine about what they can do to stave off boredom. We can provide practical advice on strategies for dealing with and managing stress. It is now a necessity to have a working mobile phone, not a luxury, and those who step off a long flight to reach quarantine will probably welcome a charger or adapter more than anything else. Activating your social network, albeit remotely, is not just a key priority. But if you're unable to do so it can result in immediate anxiety, and longer- term distress.

Also important is the capacity to connect with one's family and friends. In particular, social media may play an important role in interacting with those far away, enabling people who are in quarantine to inform their loved ones about their condition and reassure them they are well. Hence providing those quarantined with cell phones, cords and outlets for charging devices and reliable Wi-Fi networks with internet connectivity to allow them to connect directly with loved ones may reduce feelings of loneliness, stress and panic.

Although we can achieve this by enforced quarantine, in the case of widespread home quarantine, it could be more difficult to do; countries that impose censors on social media and messaging applications could also present difficulties in ensuring lines of communication between those quarantined and their loved ones. Finally, a few previously learned lessons about quarantine from patient care: patients need to keep their (cell) phones handy and charged, and use them to protect their social network to catch a cheater. They should limit the amount of time they listen to and watch media news, and start recording the everyday events and their reactions. And due to language misunderstanding, they need to be briefed on the difference between quarantine (exposed) and isolation (infected) and the vital importance of maintaining guidelines for quarantines.