COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Several states across the nation are entering phase one of reopening their economy. However, this does not mean all the precautions you have been taking to contain the spread of COVID-19 should now be forgotten.
“Coronavirus is a fact of life for us right now, COVID-19 is not going away anywhere. Coronavirus is predicted to be with us probably for at least the next 18-24 months," said Texas A&M School of Public Health professor Angela Clendenin.
As non-essential businesses are continuing to open up during this time, and shelter in place orders are being lifted, more people are leaving their homes and hanging out in public areas.
“We have to remind ourselves that where we’re at right now, we still have the disease circulating in our communities, it still has a high level of transmission, it can still be very deadly for people, so when we are trying to reopen so that we can resuscitate our economy, we still have a very strong responsibility not just to ourselves and our families but to one another, to do the best we can to mitigate that transmission," said Clendenin.
Professor Clendenin says it’s still important to abide by the social distancing rules of six feet, and to be constantly washing your hands and carry hand sanitizer with you.
“We probably should think about reopening the economy even slower but at the same time, the longer we take on reopening our economy, the harder it’s going to be for our economy to rebound. So we’re at this balancing act where we need to do something to reopen for economic purposes, but we have to do it responsibly," said Clendenin.
She added that it is crucial everyone does their part so we can move forward together.
“People are eager to get back to some semblance of control and some semblance of empowerment over their circumstances and situation but because of the nature of covid19, it is an individual responsibility, and it’s going to take every single person respecting the disease and respecting what we have to do to protect ourselves and our families and everyone around us, and that’s what’s going to be able to make our families cope with this to recover moving forward," said Clendenin.
Clendenin says it is hard to predict the impacts this outbreak will have on our societal structure in the long run.