Covid-19 and the City

In 2019, the first modern world pandemic, Covid-19, purportedly began in a local Chinese wet market (where live animals are killed). The risk of pathogens jumping from animals to humans has always been there, the difference now is that diseases are likely to spring up in both urban and natural environments. We have created densely packed populations where we live alongside bats, rodents, pets, birds and other living things. The dense packings means that diseases such as Ebola, Sars, bird flu, Covid-19 spread quickly. Global urbanization means that infections are transmitted first to the large metropolitan areas, and then later to more rural locations. The 2019/20 Covid-19 pandemic mandated a global shut-down for the first time in modern history, with consequential changes in local areas. With sheltering in place many people gained an appreciation of their local areas with concomitant connections world-wide through social media and the Internet.

Write a 1000 word paper that answers the question posed below while spending some time developing the story of Covid-19 as a city phenomenon and its effects on local and global connectivity to our urban lifestyles.
How has Covid-19 impacted urban life? In what ways was global urbanism responsible for the new coronavirus outbreak? In what ways was global urbanism responsible for the spread of the novel coronavirus? How do the relations between urbanism and nature relate to pandemics? In what ways do peoples sense of place change during shelter-in-place orders? What do you think will change in a post- pandemic urban environment?

As part of your paper, create a map that documents the diffusion of Covid-19 as a global urban phenomenon.