People lose their jobs, money, and a roof over their heads due to coronavirus: stories of victims

Life on the planet freezes: billions of people are forced to hide in their homes. For many, this means a loss of income, and no one has canceled the costs: bills, rent, hunger and loans do not go to quarantine. The impending crisis threatens the world with a surge of poverty. Writes about this with the BBC.

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The authorities of all countries have thought how to avoid this. Some support banks and business: the UK, for example, promises them loans under state guarantees. Others are people who have lost their jobs, or the entire population at once. The United States promises $ 1000 to every American; Hong Kong has already allocated $ 1300 to seven million residents.

Each government strives to write out its own recipe, but few managed to move from discussions and promises to the distribution of subsidies. Meanwhile, people lose not only their usual comfort, but also their loved ones, work, income and a roof over their heads.

From actors to masseurs

Actress Petra Skhovankova from Brno (Czech Republic) still hopes that the rehearsal of the new performance planned for May will take place. In the meantime, she is looking for a side job: a Czech teacher on Skype or a nanny.

“I have already lost money on performances for schoolchildren in English. It was one of my main sources of income,” says Petra. “I registered as unemployed, and of course, started saving.”

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“So far no one has asked to look after the children, and I don’t know if they will because of the quarantine. One foreigner responded to my post on social networks about Czech lessons,” she continues.

One after another, Petra’s acting colleagues find themselves in a similar situation: “Everyone solves problems in their own way. One of them took a course as a massage therapist and now hopes to make money from it.”

Expensive virus

In the beauty salon at Travis Potter, the people have recently diminished. Americans, especially the older ones, on the advice of the authorities are waiting for an epidemic at home and one by one refuse to cut, says a Kentucky hairdresser.

Most of all, Travis fears a protracted quarantine and US President Donald trump. He curses the head of state with unprintable words for his slowness and is afraid that the epidemic will get out of control. Then life will stop for a long time.

“We are sitting and waiting for us all to be closed,” he says. —Hairdressers are at risk; no one comes to us. “I have two clients who returned recently: one from Italy, the other from a cruise.”

“Hairdressers are individual entrepreneurs; we are not entitled to any unemployment benefits. What if someone else gets sick? Things are really bad here with insurance,” he complains.

In the United States there is no generally accessible public health system, and private insurance medicine is mainly available to working and elderly people, and insurance covers only a fraction of the cost, and even with it the average American spends thousands of dollars on medical care per year.

“I don’t have insurance because I don’t fall into any of the benefit categories. If I buy it myself, I’ll have to shell out $5-10 thousand a year before they start treating me for free,” says Travis.

US authorities have promised to compensate for part of the costs of patients with COVID-19, but help is provided only to those with insurance.

“Here in Kentucky we don’t have free tests. And I heard that they charge almost a thousand dollars for a coronavirus test,” the man worries.

Alone at home with children

Travis’s services are not averse to using Natalie, but she is locked with two children at home on the other side of the Atlantic. The Frenchwoman is not easily given isolation imposed by a presidential decree.

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“Hairdressers are closed. I think I’m becoming a scarecrow,” she jokes.

The French social protection system will give odds to most countries. Natalie works for a large cosmetics company, her salary has been maintained, and she is listed as “technically unemployed” until the end of March. The state promises to help both businesses and people. For example, it pays for 15 days of forced parental leave while schools are closed.

But Natalie is in no hurry to rejoice.

“I’m afraid of one thing: if I get sick, how will the children be left here alone without me?” - she says.

Loneliness and defenselessness in the days of quarantine are felt especially sharply. Most of Natalie’s neighbors in an apartment building on the outskirts of Bordeaux are elderly people, many of whom have long been single. She cannot visit them because of quarantine, but she tries to support them, calls on the phone, offers help, and is interested in how things are going.

“Things are bad for them, they are very sad and anxious,” that’s what she learned from conversations with neighbors.

Old men are asked not to leave home. Others can, but only on strictly limited occasions. The police are following this, if anything, they are fined. The other day, Natalie went to the store, but one did not dare, she took a 16-year-old son with her.

The French take the supermarkets by storm and suffer daily losses. Chronicles of cart races and battles for toilet paper fill the airwaves and social networks. Sellers do not recognize buyers: self-control, tact and sense of proportion vanished in just a few days.

Therefore, a trip to the store for the locked French is not entertainment, but a forced, difficult and dangerous enterprise. And the home kitchen quickly gets on edge, not to mention the fact that it takes quite some time, especially if there are children in the house.

“I’m not afraid of dying of hunger. But then I won’t eat pasta for a long time,” says Natalie.

Although she was more fortunate than those who lost their jobs due to quarantine, she still lost some of the income. You can forget about the six-month prize. In addition, the company temporarily does not pay for meals, and this is about 15% of its salary. The preferential school cafeteria is closed, and children's meals fell on the family budget. The hole in it grows every day.

The only thing that does not decrease is the account. Mortgage, taxes, utilities.

Natalie really hopes that the quarantine will be short-lived, but is afraid that the consequences will be serious in any case. Her company sells goods far from essentials, and surely sales will fall. And in general, the economy will sag, and people will become poorer.

Move to parents and start from scratch

The first in the crisis was the tourism industry, in which Richard was unlucky to work.

“I sold ski tours in London. I was laid off on Thursday because all the resorts were closed,” he says.

Coronavirus threatens to deprive the tourism industry of 50 million jobs. And all the working experience of Richard is connected with her, and now he is afraid that he will have to start from scratch.

The authorities' promise to support the business with state guarantees for bank loans does not reassure him. Banks will earn a commission, companies will stay afloat, but this will not deter them from cutting costs.

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“Even if my former travel agency receives a loan, it is unlikely that they will take me back. There’s nothing special to sell, the market is dead,” he says.

“It would be better if the government supported people directly. I have paid thousands of pounds in taxes and social charges during my career. In the meantime, I applied for benefits, am looking for a job and moved in with relatives to save at least a little,” adds unemployed Richard.

As reported by ForumDaily:

• A new virus was discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. In 2020, it covered all continents except Antarctica. On March 11, US President Donald Trump imposed a ban on entry from the EU. The ban came into force on Friday, March 13, and will last at least 30 days. In particular, it will concern people who have visited the Schengen area over the past 14 days.
• March 13, Trump introduced a nationwide emergency regime in the US due to coronavirus.
• On March 11, WHO recognized the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, which covered more than 110 countries. Symptoms of Coronavirus COVID-19 Disease Available here.
• Virologist's tips on how to protect yourself from infection - here to register:.
• Taking advantage of the panic in the society because of the epidemic, fraudsters came up with several schemes to deceive victims of personal data and money. The most common ones can be found here.
• Having succumbed to panic due to a state of emergency, Americans are massively buying toilet paperbut they cannot explain why they need it during the epidemic.
• Read all news about coronavirus in our special project.

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'Even the doctors did not know what to expect': an American described her personal experience with COVID-19

8 steps to take if you have financial problems due to coronavirus

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