It is a good day today everyone but I came back home with a lot of mixed thoughts. Going out today to the grocery store, I saw a few people who talked about a rumored re-lockdown. Did I just say a second lockdown? Will the government lockdown the country or a few states for the second time and what does this means?
The First Lockdown Recap
The lockdown came like a whirlwind, very swift and it caused a lot of damage from economic crumbling to close closure, suspension of travelling, restriction of movement, distancing and social distancing. This things are the few things that were recorded but other things like local robbery, government fraud, extortion, illegal parade and other things to mention a few. During the process of the first lockdown, a lot of states in my country experienced a high number of robbery from people who were hungry as a result of the lockdown (I had a friend who was robbed and he was given a receipt to show to other robbers who wanted to rob him the second time [ridiculous you will say but it happened]). The government said they distributed funds as relief to citizens but no one in my region got anything and when they were asked to come account for the spending, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation caught fire and no one was able to save the documents to show proof of the money distributed anymore as the fire destroyed them (Impressive you say, that’s my country). Extortion from both civil servants and private entrepreneur, as they sold medical equipment expensive even when they got it free. Also, the Police started parading people illegally so they could extort from them.
During the lockdown, a lot of people lost their jobs, as so many companies laid off up to 80% of their work force, so many small businesses lost a lot of money as goods were getting spoilt, people were unable to make their regular revenue unlike prior the pandemic. A lot of people also starved real hard and had to survive on other people’s good will. With all this listed, can we survive a second lockdown?
The Rumored Second Lockdown
It is true that in other to keep the spread of the virus to its least, a lockdown is needed. Although, the country is yet to be fully opened but economic activities have been going on and at this point shutting the economy again can be detrimental to the economy.
There is no doubt that if there is a second lockdown, there will be a lot of bankruptcy which will cause a lot of people to lose their jobs increasing the number of unemployed in the country. Furthermore, it is believed that the stock market is a proof of the economic state of a country and currently, the stock market isn’t friendly but another lockdown will crash it completely out of panic.
Final Note
This is a thing of concern, what is your opinion on this, what should be done, a lot of people are still finding it hard to stand on their foot. Also, it might take a lot of time for the economy to be stable but also health is important as the virus can spread very fast increasing the number of infected patients and probably mortality.
Most likely things will be different where you live. Here in Texas, there is little appetite for shutting down the state. Nationally, it is clear the President does not want to shut down the country.
Fortunately, our national emergency management procedures put most of the disaster response in the hands of local governments. Cities and counties can decide if lockdowns are necessary in their jurisdictions. This ensures that places that are recovering sooner can reopen sooner. Or, places that are suffering more can continue to lock down.
It does cause some confusion if you are moving from place to place. However, it makes sense to only lock down the necessary places, not all.
In the end, we may get to a place where it is unenforceable. Public employees also get sick and enforcement will be cut back.
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I live in central Europe, and here things have loosened up a lot recently, due to the summer, the need for the money brought by tourism... and we are now seeing the numbers increase in almost all the countries in Europe. I don't think a lockdown will come here yet, but when school start again in the end of august, start of September... I am afraid that we might end up going into lockdown again.
I read an article from @ajewa (I can't really remember the author exactly) who also reflected on it. In my own opinion,there are only two options; 'a second lockdown' or we decide to 'face the pandemic' and risk our survival. sad enough i can't guess which is more likely.