1.
the COVID-19 pandemic; the coronavirus crisis (as a period and its hardships)
The period of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, together with the hardships it brought. The suffix 禍 means calamity or misfortune, so the word frames the pandemic as a time of trouble rather than just the disease itself.
コロナ禍で生活が変わった。
Life changed during the coronavirus pandemic.
コロナ禍で多くの店が閉まった。
Many shops closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
コロナ禍をきっかけに、在宅勤務が一気に広がった。
Spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, working from home spread rapidly.
A coinage from コロナ (corona, short for the coronavirus) plus the suffix 禍 (calamity, disaster). It refers to the pandemic as a difficult period and became extremely common from 2020 onward. Note that 禍 is read か here, not うず.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- コロナ禍で: amid the coronavirus pandemic
- コロナ禍の影響: the impact of the pandemic
- コロナ禍を経て: having gone through the pandemic
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 新型コロナ: COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus) — names the virus or disease itself, not the period
- 感染拡大: spread of infection — describes the spreading, not the era as a whole