How to speak about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) with ease!

English with Kathryn
Jun 18, 2020
4 min read

Updated: Jan 19, 2022

The Coronavirus: it's the topic of conversation on everyone's lips right now because it has touched all of us in one way or another. I wanted to make this video to teach those of you who want to be more at ease speaking about this topic in English. A lot of the terminology you hear on the news is explained here, but if you want me to explain another term, just ask me in the comments below

TRANSCRIPT

Hi! Welcome to English with Kathryn.

Thanks for checking in again.

Today we're going to be talking about the coronavirus.

Welcome everybody,

Seeing that most people in the world are in some kind of confinement situation and are now staying at home to prevent the spread of infection of Covid 19, I thought it would be a good time to explain to you the terminology surrounding this bizarre situation.

There's a lot of confusion and uncertainty, especially if you're living or staying in an English-speaking country on your own.

So, I thought the best way to do this would be to write a little story about Annabelle with all

the vocabulary you need.

As I'm telling the story, I will highlight the words or expressions and explain them afterwards.

STORY

This is a story about Annabelle, a French girl who travels to Australia at the wrong time. Annabelle had been planning her trip to Australia for one whole year and she couldn't wait to discover the land of surf, sun, kangaroos and koalas.

She was worried that she would not be able to fly there because of the coronavirus or COVID-19 as they were calling it now.

She wondered why they called it the Coronavirus, was it something to do with the beer?

In her research, she discovered that corona means crown and that the virus, under a

microscope, resembled a solar corona.

There you go.

COVID-19 is just using the letters from coronavirus disease and 2019, the year it was discovered.

When Annabelle booked her flight tickets, COVID-19 didn't even exist but she watched nervously as what started out as an outbreak, (which is a sudden increase of a disease in a specific area or region) then progressed into an epidemic (which is a disease that has now been identified in places other than the original location) and eventually, it became a pandemic when it started to be a worldwide disease.

Now, Anabelle thought she would take the risk and fly to Australia anyway.

At the airport in Paris and on the plane, there were many people wearing face masks and gloves. People were also keeping their distance - at least one metre. But on the plane obviously, that wasn't possible. So, Anna just kept her head down, did not order any plain food and used her hand sanitizer all the time.

But while on the plane the pilot announced, that the Prime Minister of Australia had directed that all travellers from any country have to self-isolate or self-quarantine for two weeks.

This meant that even though she appeared healthy, she would have to find a room somewhere in order that she would not be in contact with anybody else.

It was voluntary, this means that it was highly recommended by the government but they would not enforce this rule.

You choose to do it because it's the right thing to do to avoid the spread of infection.

Spreading an infection means giving it to other people.

She was told that she needed to monitor which means to check herself carefully every day, and if if she started to feel sick,

For example, if she experienced any symptoms or signs of disease such as fever, cough

or shortness of breath, she should go to a doctor and get tested.

If she tested positive for COVID-19, she would need to go into mandatory isolation for another two weeks. This means she would have no choice but to stay isolated until the virus passed.

She would have to do this until she was no longer contagious.

Australia was not yet in Cordon sanitaire or lockdown, which describes quarantining a whole community or country, which might contain sick and healthy people and prevent anyone from leaving or coming in from another country.

And this is in order to curb (or stop) the spread of the disease.

This is what all the countries in Europe were now doing and what China did with a population of 50 million in Wuhan.

So after two weeks of self isolation, Annabelle was asymptomatic that means she showed no signs of the disease.

She was so grateful to be able to go outside freely. Although she was shocked and disappointed about the number of people who were not practicing social distancing.

There were still large groups of people on the beaches and on the streets, exercising and having family picnics.

There were also people taking public transport where social distancing cannot be cannot possibly be observed.

So, Annabelle decided to take precautions into her own hands and stay in her room as much as possible, wash her hands regularly, do her food shopping only once a week and watch as much Netflix and online videos as possible in order to improve her English.

It wasn't so bad after all this coronavirus.

She would have time to see the kangaroos and koalas later on.

Thanks guys for listening as always.

If you have any questions, just write them below in the comments.

If you like this video, click like.

And look, I would just wish all you who are watching and your loved ones very best through all of this.

And stay safe.

Thank you see you next time bye : )

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