President Trump recently backed off his announcement of wanting the US businesses back up by Easter, extending social distancing guidelines to April 30th. Currently the US has taken first in the number of announced cases worldwide according to the CDC. There are also many new cases still being announced on the east and west coasts.
“The highest point of death rates, remember this, is likely to hit in two weeks… Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30, to slow the spread,” Said Trump during a Coronavirus task force briefing.
With a recent upsurge in cases in New York as well as many ignoring the social distancing guidelines, such as Spring Break, many may have gone back home contagious and spread it further. Even if the US puts down its already relaxed barrier, how many people would go back to business as usual?
“We’re all in search of the apex and the other side of the mountain.” Said Gov. Andrew Cuomo reporting on the 9,928 new cases in New York March, 31.
Waiting for Apex
It is no surprise that one of the most heavily populated cities in the US was hit the hardest with over 84,000 of the roughly 200,000 cases in the US. Many are hoping that the apex will be hit by the beginning of May like the yearly flu.
The difference with corona and the Flu is that this is much more contagious and we still don’t know how long it can survive. According to The World Health Organization, the virus can last several days outside of the human body, the flu can last several hours. There is also the fact that this is something new and we don’t know if it will be a seasonal thing from now on.
As long as there are still active cases people will have a hard time going out in public. Once given the all clear it may take an extra month to start being normal again. Flattening the curve doesn’t mean it will continuously go down either, it will go up again and new cases will continue less and less frequently.
What’s Next
Many may ask the questions after a month or so of isolation and say, “what is next?” Business will need to recover without a doubt. Many people will need reemployment. There is also the underlying fear that will still consume some of us. Just because someone says it’s okay now doesn’t break this new ingrained feeling of keeping your distance. For now we will have to wait and see what is to come, and for now support and help anyway we can.
