COVID-19, a quickly-spreading strain of the coronavirus, has reached 1,000 deaths and 43,000 infections in China, as well as a few cases and deaths in other countries.

Like China, Kenya is also dealing with a serious matter. The locust plague in Africa is causing great concern. Swarms of locusts have destroyed thousands of acres in East Africa. This is concerning because Kenya is a major producer for black tea, fruits, and vegetables.

Although these are currently major problems within Kenya and China, the governments will succeed in eradicating COVID-19 and locust plague. Still, some of their problems can be attributed to government failure and global warming, respectively.

China has already been receiving help from other countries. Aside from the US, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been monitoring the situation and advising people around the world about precautionary measures and treatment options.

On Feb. 7,  China lost one of their own doctors, Li Wenliang, to the deadly virus. He was one of the first to alert people about the outbreak, but the government of China ordered him to stop spreading alarming information. A large controversy resulted from his death; people grew infuriated at the government for refusing to listen. This moment became one of the major turning points for China, as they are now taking more measures to avoid further spread of the disease. The communist government only hopes this will be enough to convince 1.4 billion people that their leadership is effective.

As for Kenya, many compare the locust plague to a biblical plague because billions of locust swarms are destroying every crop in their path. The Book of Exodus says: “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.” Much like this description, Kenya is dealing with the worst plague that they have witnessed in nearly 25 years. Since locust populations flourish during times of heavy rains, the cyclones predicted to strike that area – mainly due to higher water temperatures because of global warming – will probably make the situation worse.

It is uncertain what kind of further damage COVID-19 will do, but the locust plague is likely to grow exponentially by June. In the future, more preventative measures can be taken by the Chinese government – in the case of COVID-19 – and the world as a whole – with regards to mitigating the increasing global temperatures.