The coronavirus pandemic has a pervasive impact on the world in substantially all aspects, largely socioeconomic. Quickly ahead, after China began to ease in February, its factories became busier and its streets were no longer quiet. However there is a lack of significant parts of everyday life. Metro rides and domestic flights are down by a third. Spending on items like restaurants has declined by 40%. Across the post-lock-down rich country, life will be extremely difficult — at least until a vaccine or treatment is found.
People are being weighed down by financial deprivation, businesses are short of money, and the unemployed could face a lost decade. The longer the world has to suffer the 90% economy, the less likely it will be to recover from the pandemic (Beddoes, Z. 2020. The 90% Economy. The Economist).
In the exception of vital business industries, businesses are shut down. Socially, the way we relate to others and do things has also changed. Months of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) were usually difficult at first to adjust our routine. The process of shifting gear, so to speak, takes some time. The transition is an uphill struggle for us.
We are slowly embracing the "new normal." We are in a situation that doesn't give us a choice but to embrace the way we do things if we want to get out of the quagmire. Experts argue that we need to flatten the curve, reduce the number of positive cases and increase recoveries, is not an individual effort, but rather a diligent and deliberate effort by all.
Before the ECQ, there were schools that had completed their academic year, although others were still about to close, and so the remaining school activities had been scrapped. For graduate students, their recollections and graduation activities have either been cancelled or transferred to unspecified dates. While some were considering online graduation ceremonies, the Department of Education is bound to its directive not to engage in events with massive crowds.
In South Korea, on the other hand, a set of detailed recommendations provided by health authorities provide guidance on how people can regain some degree of economic and social activity while minimizing the risk of a second wave of infections. The recommendations cover almost every aspect of everyday life: eating in restaurants, corporate meetings, visits to the library, shopping trips, theater outings and even visits to nightlife venues, wearing a mask while taking public transport, and staying at home if you have symptoms of Covid-19, or if you have travelled abroad for the past 14 days, for example. Such theories point to the subtle ways in which we all have to thoroughly rethink our social experiences (Hui, 2020).
The pandemic has forced us to conduct activities that will be our everyday routine for at least the next few months. Socio-culturally, it is difficult for us to practice physical distancing. In the world, we are known as affectionate, "touching" people. Hygiene is another thing that we make fun of. Such a degree of experience of disinfecting everything we have touched, and of washing our hands with water and soap. It is a pattern that we have improved in classrooms. But the issue of what is there to strengthen if it's not done at home in the first place. Parents have a big part to play in ensuring that children are adequately educated at home.
The wearing of a face mask is a new custom for at least the following months. While it is still not completely clear that wearing homemade face masks helps to minimize transmission, there is reason to believe that they can help if people learn to use them correctly. In the US, some states allow people to wear them in public places, and it is increasingly possible that the use of masks in public will become the norm. (Borio, 2020)
Let us not take our health for granted. While it's a challenge for ordinary Filipinos. It is high time, however, to rethink backyard gardening using recycled plastic containers if there is little or no space available. This can lead to a two-pronged benefit: our health and the environment.
Several organizations have been engaging in different online applications for the past weeks or so. A forum that was considered by a few in the past. Zoom, Skype, Facebook live are just the main virtual networks that have risen in popularity in recent days. Anyone who may expect a conference of a thousand or more participants, which would usually be held in a hotel function room, may do so at the comfort of the participants' homes.
The decision to open or close schools has significant effects for students, their families and the workforce. Communities seeking to reopen businesses would find that they are essentially unable to do so if schools remain closed and parents prefer to stay at home with their children. As a result, efforts to re-open schools would be flexible and sensitive to the needs of local communities, students and school staff. Of example, children and teachers who have risk factors that make them more vulnerable to this virus should have the opportunity to continue working and studying from home.
Other countries have implemented creative approaches to reopening schools--such as increasing physical space between students, alternating attendance days to reduce class sizes, and staggering lunch times—and we should learn from their experiences. DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones has announced to utilize various teaching-learning modalities. During the lockdown, DepEd encourages the teachers and students to access the DepEd Commons, an online resource for learning that are developmentally appropriate and aligned with grade level standards. However Fr. Joel M. Villanueva, OSJ, provides a contrasting take about it, he said that although it helps students continue their learning even at home in this time of the community quarantine but what about those students who have limited internet connection and those who do not even have it? Under this “new normal” many things considered before as “wants” are now taken as “needs.” As a result, it further widens the gap between the rich and the poor, between those “who have” those “who have not.”
We are eager to get back to life in the way it was before the pandemic. That's not going to happen any time soon. At least until we have widespread immunity, what we need is a new 'norm' based on new behaviors and resources. Some things may have changed forever: handshakes may become a thing of the past, border pick-ups may remain with us, and more schooling may be done at home. But if we all adapt, it's possible to get back to a bit of pre-shutdown life.