Reading and listening to the news in English is an essential practice to improve your English and achieve a better score in the IELTS test. Now that we are all concerned and affected by the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), it is recommended to catch-up with both local and international news like BBC, The Guardian and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Remember, it is crucial for your mental health in this hard time to stay motivated and focused on your future goals. So use this time to study IELTS, take an online course and improve your English by reading and listening to English-spoken news.

The purpose of this article is to help you develop the basic vocabulary to understand international news in English with regards to Coronavirus.

Do you know the difference between Outbreak, Epidemic and Pandemic?

• Outbreak  

Meaning: A sudden occurrence of a disease.

Use in a sentence: “The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been assessing the outbreak of Coronavirus around the world closely.”

• Epidemic 

Meaning: A sudden widespread infection of a particular disease which affects many individuals at the same time.

Use in a sentence: “CONVID19 quickly spread from an epidemic affecting only China in December 2019 to a global pandemic causing infection and death all over the world.”

• Pandemic

Meaning: When an epidemic escalates across borders affecting people all across the world in large numbers.

Use in a sentence: “The WHO declared the outbreak of CONVID19 a pandemic as it has affected countries all across the globe.“

Do you know the difference between Quarantine and Lockdown?

• Quarantine

Meaning: A place or period of isolation banning the movement of people who have been infected with a virus or bacteria or that keeps healthy people away from infected people.

Use in a sentence: “People in quarantine have less chance of infecting others or being infected by carriers of the coronavirus.“

• Lockdown

Meaning: An emergency measure that restricts people from entering and exiting a building or area.

Use in a sentence: “The governments of many countries around the world have imposed a lockdown on the city in an effort to stop the spreading of the coronavirus.“

Do you know the difference between Social Distancing and Self Isolation?

• Social Distancing 

Meaning: Measures taken to keep a physical distance between people to lower the risk of spreading a virus.

Use in a sentence: “The government issued strict guidelines for social distancing in an effort to restrict the transmission of the coronavirus.”

• Self isolation 

Meaning: Someone who has been infected with a disease separates themselves from healthy people around them to restrict infecting them.

Use in a sentence: “WHO recommends people remain in self-isolation at home and only go out for essentials to limit the spread of the deadly disease.“

Do you know the meaning of Asymptomatic, Fatality Rate, Incubation, and Flattening the Curve?

• Asymptomatic

Meaning: a person who has no symptoms of an infection or disease.

Use in a sentence: “Many people are infected with coronavirus but are asymptomatic so they go undetected.“

• Fatality Rate

Meaning: The occurrence of death as in the case of disease

Use in a sentence: “The fatality rate of CONVID19 is relatively high especially amongst the elderly and vulnerable groups.“

• Incubation

Meaning: The time it takes for the symptoms of a disease to appear after being infected.

Use in a sentence: “The incubation period of coronavirus is 14 days  and many people continue working as they are unaware that they are infected.“

• Flattening the Curve

Meaning: Reducing the steep rise in the number of people infected by a disease.

Use in a sentence: “Measures taken by the government to quarantine the public have been effective in flattening the curve in the number of cases.“

So learn this vocabulary and catch up with the international news about this global issue.

As we said in a previous article, even though these are uncertain times, don’t waste your time – try to stay motivated and keep studying IELTS at home. 

Learn all the tips & techniques to improve your IELTS skills and achieve a higher in this course.