COVID-19 pandemic in the society: Basic issues and implications for counselling

Abstract

Fear and anxiety are adaptive animal defense mechanisms that are fundamental for survival and involve several biological processes of preparation for a response to potentially threatening events. However, when threat is uncertain and continuous, as in the current coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, fear and anxiety can become chronic and burdensome whereby they become excess in the face of events standing as stimulus for their cause. It is quite imperative to identify the causes of coronavirus in order to critically look at the way forward in managing this deadly disease that has changed almost the entire systems of the globe. The damage so far done by coronavirus all over the world and especially here in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized. As a result of various
challenges of such like; Ebola outbreak between 2013 and 2014, the increase in fear and anxiety over the havoc this pandemic is generating globally and Nigeria in particular becomes uncontrollable. The rise in its spread becomes daily news. As a result, this article therefore examined some basic issues like the causes of coronavirus in Nigeria and world at large, the consequences of contracting coronavirus, control measures of fear and anxiety factors in the spread of this disease and its counselling implications were also  outlined.

Key words: COVID-19, Pandemic, Society, Issues, Counselling Implications