It’s inevitable that gradually the United States, the Caribbean and the rest of the world will lift lockdown restrictions that resulted from attempts to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
But even as people return to their jobs, to dine in restaurants, shop at malls, and other aspects of life that were routine before COVID-19 became a raging pandemic in March, it’s pretty obvious that life as it was known will be very different.
For one, it’s going to take great patience to live what was once a fast-paced life. Now what took a few minutes to accomplish is taking hours—social distancing has made errands like conducting a transaction inside a bank more tedious. To avoid crowded lobbies, banks allow only a few customers to enter at a time. Other customers are required to wait outside in lines, six feet apart. And, there’s nothing to be done about it but exercise patience.
The same thing is happening at supermarkets, department stores, post offices, and even while boarding aircrafts.
Although some people are understandably frustrated by the slowdown, it’s important that common sense prevail.
Already, it seems that in the pressure for life to return to normal after over six weeks of stay-at-home restrictions common sense is being thrown away with soiled masks and gloves. If the advice of most scientists is followed, there would be no lifting of the restrictions that have closed most businesses, and kept most people at home. With the exception of a few countries, COVID-19 is still wreaking havoc—people are still being contaminated, and most tragically, people are still dying in large numbers.
There’s not much alternative for people to earn and maintain a standard of living, or even the weakest economy to survive, if lockdown restrictions continue without an apparent end.
But while it’s becoming necessary for people to return to some semblance of normalcy, one where unusual patience will be necessary, common sense must prevail. Crowded places must be avoided, and people must stay a fair distance from each other in public.
The youth are desperate to break out of quarantine and huddle together at parties, concerts and major sport events, but they must continue to exercise patience and common sense. Coronavirus is still around. Hundreds of people are dying every day. Although the virus isn’t as detrimental to the youth as to their older relatives, they can unknowingly contract the virus and later infect these older relatives.
Along with the need for unusual patience, and application of common sense is the need for unusual creativity.
COVID-19 has not only robbed the health and lives of thousands of people, but their means of employment and their income. But, the situation isn’t unlike the economic mess that America and other nations experienced immediately after World War II, when people used creativity and ingenuity to help restore economies.
Coping with the spread of COVID-19 has created the need to copiously sanitize almost everything in the home, and everything and place in public. This opens the need for a massive sanitization industry, with an extremely large corps of workers involved in daily sanitizing of public offices, stores, malls, hospitals, schools, churches, restaurants, etc. This creates opportunities for entrepreneurial minded people to use their business creativity in opening suitable businesses, including producing sanitizers and sanitizing equipment, in what could be a long-thriving industry. Importantly, there will also be new opportunities for thousands of workers to be employed in this industry.
Another COVID-19 preventative measure that’s spreading widely is the wearing of masks. This presents new creative opportunities, which, noticeably, some people are already taking advantage of. Gradually advertising is popping up of colorful, attractive designer masks. Last week on Facebook, masks depicting 2020 political campaign messages were being promoted, as well as a set of masks, one depicting each day of the week.
The need to wear COVID-19 preventative masks, probably for several months in the future is an opportunity for creative fashion designers to design masks that are accessories to female and male apparel. The possibilities abound to make solid incomes and profits in a developing mask industry.
Also, with restaurants unlikely to operate at more than 50 percent occupancy for some time, the demand for take-out meals is going to be high. Similarly, the delay as people join lines to shop at supermarkets and stores will build demand for home deliveries. So, there’s going to be increasing demand for drivers with vehicles to deliver meals, groceries and merchandise to homes and businesses.
There are several other areas in which people can use their creativity and ingenuity to profit from this new normal. By focusing on necessary solutions, with patience and common sense, instead of allowing despair to rob the quality of life, people can apply creativity to rebound even while they continue to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
