Socio-Economic and Psychological Impacts of Covid-19: A Case Study of Quarantined Village Ziarat Talash in Dir Lower, Pakistan

The global outbreak of coronavirus is conclusively attributed to the direct contacts and social interactions of individuals with one another. Because of the fatal nature of the virus and man being the major host for the virus, scientists have embarked upon/ intimidated people to practice social distancing so that the further spreading of the virus may be stopped. Such social distancing, including self-isolation, restriction of movement, lockdown, and quarantine has brought enormous social disruption in the lives of people. This paper aims to explore the social, psychological, and economic impacts of social distancing on the lives of the inhabitants in a quarantined village Ziarat Talash in District Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. For this purpose, 08 potential respondents in the mentioned village were purposively selected and their views were taken through in-depth interviewing. The collected data was analysed and the interviews were clubbed into three major themes including social, psychological, and economic impacts of self-isolation and quarantined life in the targeted locale of the study. It is concluded that self-isolation and social distancing through quarantine has seriously disrupted the social, economic, and psychological aspects of the inhabitants in the area.