With over 15 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, of which almost 620,000 have resulted in deaths, it is evident that it will be some time before we can return to life as we knew it before the pandemic.
There is a new normal, and it is not going away any time soon.
As the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghbreyesus has suggested, we should be treating decisions we take in the wake of this pandemic as life-and-death decisions, as, moving forward, there is no denying that the spread of the coronavirus could and should be taken into consideration in every single decision we take as individuals, and every single policy implemented by governments and authorities worldwide.
This means, first and foremost, that we can no longer sit around debating health directives such as the wearing of masks and social distancing. We as a society must adapt to these changes and ensure that these directives are maintained strictly by us as citizens and by law enforcement in the public areas.
Secondly, we must rethink the future: This is a pandemic that affects the entire world, and our policies cannot be isolationist in their scope and implementation.
If we have been overly dependent on one particular sector or had an underwhelming health budget, for example, those must change -- we can no longer afford to continue as we have always done.
There are tough times ahead, and we cannot remain oblivious to that fact. We must do our best to ensure self-sustainability and cooperation moving forward, and strive towards a world where the coronavirus eventually is no longer a problem.
