Resuming to normal life, after a couple of weeks indoors, has been challenging, yet a relief.
This is truer, as expressed by the reactions of the people, for the first couple of days, following the announcement of a partial easing of the lock down and the opening of businesses.
The streets got flooded with people, eager to get back to normal life, as usual, either for want of fresh air of liberty, or propelled by the hardship undergone, as a result of being away from work and business for a while.
Banking facilities, malls and markets, got crowded with customers.
Looking at the busy streets, traffic congestion, work practices and the ease, with which people went about carrying out their everyday businesses, one gets forced to ask serious questions, about the decision to ease the lockdown.
While we are eager to go back to normalcy, we must be conscious of the fact that; it is far from over, until it is.
The Lock down on our communities has, in reality, never been palatable and the effects have been grievous, on the world populace, as a whole.
In a bid to revive our economy and see how much our nation will be able to, simultaneously, manage the pandemic, with people going back to their daily activities like in the past.
We must take cognizance of the risks and challenges that lies ahead, so that, further harm is not done, in the process.
Lock Down: Intent and Results
It will be unfair, not to appraise the lockdown, while bitterly complaining, about its devastating effects on our social lives and the economy, for every action or decision comes with a price.
The price of saving humanity, at this time, may involve us, going through some inconveniences, for this period; for living and livelihood are relevant, only when there is life.
The disease gets transmitted, via contact, with droplets from sneezing, or cough from infected persons.
Infected persons can sometimes take a while before showing symptoms, hence, go about their daily activities, ignorantly contaminating things they touch and infecting people, who touch such, or who hang around them.
Having recorded cases of infections, each country enforced social distancing and lockdowns, as a measure to control the spread of the deadly virus.
This, alongside identifying infected persons and putting them in isolation for treatment, helped slow down the rate of transmission, in most countries.
Matter-of-fact, studies by graphical representation of infections per day, shows that, the number of infection, would have gone sky high
within a month, or two around the world, but for the lockdown.
China, the earliest epicenter of the infection, for instance, was able to contain the pandemic, through effective lockdown of its cities.
Quick and strict lockdown measures had allowed the country to ensure that, peak value of cases had never gone higher, in a couple of months.
Of Lock Down And The Underlying Risks
We all, Of course, yearn and hope that, life comes back to normal. We missed work, hanging out with friends and enjoying the liberty of social life.
The lock down has not been friendly with business activities as well, bringing an indefinite halt, to activities of religious and academic institutions and paralyzing the economy.
The hardships are portrayed, in the response of citizens, quoted as saying: “If coronavirus does not kill us, we will die of hunger”.
Every good leader gets prompted, by these circumstances, to ease the lockdown and see how best to manage the pandemic while people go about their daily activities and businesses.
We must, however, not get too carried away, or excited, by the want of life, as usual, such that we put that very life at risk.
We cannot deny the very fact that the pandemic is still out there.
With the hope of a vaccine still an illusion, prevention remains our handy cure.
The question of safety, remains imminent and paramount, while the thought of easing the lockdown completely, crosses the mind.
With records of new cases, rising daily, one thing is obvious and that is that, we are yet to identify all infected persons.
Given the varying times of symptoms development, there are chances that a few infected persons roam the streets and go about their daily businesses and a possibility of further infection transmission, looms.
In the event of failure to comply with social distancing guidelines, poor hygienic practices, inadequate contact records and travel monitoring.
The benefits of easing the lockdown, can turn around and haunt us; another wave of mass infections.
In the first wave of infection, cases got recorded from persons with international travel history and proper contact tracing, made possible, via travel records, hence, contacts got tested and isolated.
At the moment, locals are potential carriers of the virus and contact tracing, could be more difficult.
In view of these, the government will do well to, cautiously, monitor the events and developments of the next few weeks, not being shy to take any beneficial decision in the events of the unusual.
The people too have a role to play; we all must be conscious and cautious, of the danger lurking around our streets, and respond, by staying safe.
Featured Image: theafricareport
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