People start to return to normal after the spread of coronavirus, but the reality shows that the new stay-at-home measures may affect millions of lives again. Davidson revealed the government’s plans to establish the COVID-19 lockdown again. This review includes outcomes of the safety measures and the problems that will appear due to new restrictions. Ontario is still dealing with the shutdown’s economic consequences, thus the appliance of this strategy will worsen citizens’ lives. COVID-19 cases have increased with more social gatherings, yet people follow the healthcare instructions. The government’s willingness to open schools safely for children is reasonable, but the shutdown is not the ultimate solution. The halting of loosening measures is the right approach that will affect the economy slightly as compared to lockdown outcomes.
The first problem is the previous shutdown’s economic damage: people lost jobs and might protest against new restrictions. The common solution is to divide citizens into categories depending on health conditions, and establish shutdown highest risk groups. The useful solution is to ease measures only for people younger than 40 as this will decrease the number of cases (Fokas et al., 2020). However, many teachers are older than 40, and forcing them to stay at home will cause educational problems.
The other issue is opening schools as Health Ministry is willing to keep children safe first. Educational institutions must apply internal measures like social distancing and providing masks and sanitizers. Also, the solution is to make attendance policies and implement remote programs (Melnick & Darling-Hammond, 2020). The concern with opening schools is parents’ trust in healthcare regulations. If schools consider the following loosening measures, the number of cases will not increase.
The government pauses easing measures for a month, thus social gatherings, and the number of events’ attendants stays limited. The positive result is that the average number of cases will stay low, while the negative outcome is the lack of communication and events that worsens people’s mental health and socioeconomic conditions. It is necessary for citizens to follow the safety instructions to avoid a new shutdown.
In case of the new shutdown, the consequences will be severe for the economy. The number of disease cases will not come to zero. Schools need to open, and children must follow the safety instructions. Preventing easing measures is useful for eliminating critical leaps in cases. It is vital for each person to maintain good health and stay safe. All that is needed is for people to value the prevention measures. It is in the government power to raise the responsibility among citizens, and therefore decrease social gatherings.
References
Davidson, S. (2020). Shutdown not off the table for Ontario after ‘disturbing’ spike in COVID-19 infections. CTV News.
Fokas, A. S., Cuevas-Maraver, J., & Kevrekidis, P. G. (2020). Two alternative scenarios for easing COVID-19 lockdown measures: One reasonable and one catastrophic. medRxiv. Web.
Melnick, H., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2020). Reopening schools in the context of COVID-19: Health and safety guidelines from other countries. Policy brief. [PDF document].