There May Be No Going Back

The ‘normalcy’ that China is returning to may provide a snapshot of our post-COVID-19 world

- Ananth Krishnan

May 4 is the date marked on many calendars, the day we in India hope some semblance of normalcy may return to our lives. We may well have to wait a lot longer — lockdown or no lockdown — if the “normalcy” that people across the border in China are returning to, after two long months of isolation, is anything to go by. From January 23, when 50 million people in Hubei province were kept in one of the biggest quarantines in history, much of China, where the COVID-19 pandemic first began, was placed under some form of restrictions. By one estimate, more than 750 million people were effectively under a strict lockdown. Since late March, as the number of cases outside of the Hubei epicentre in China began to subside, some restrictions were eased. On April 8, the government said Hubei would finally end its 76 days of isolation.

The new normal

As offices, restaurants, and even trains resume service, people in China are, however, finding that the normalcy they were waiting to return to is, in fact, anything but normal. The shadow of COVID-19 is still hanging over every aspect of daily life. In constant fear of the possibility of a second wave of infections, authorities are continuing with a range of physical distancing measures as a precaution.

For the rest of the world too, this may be the new normal that awaits us. An April 14 study by Harvard researchers suggested physical distancing measures may be here to stay, perhaps on an on-and-off basis, until 2022, because one-time lockdowns will not be enough to control the pandemic. Some are suggesting this could continue even longer until the world achieves ‘herd immunity’, which most scientists say can only be achieved through widespread vaccinations, which could take years. The post-COVID-19 world may be here to stay for a while yet.