COVID-19 And The New Normal

Greetings to everyone out there. I seize this moment as newfound opportunity, as I take you through a thoughtful excursion on the above topic.
In the words of CNN, Coronavirus has killed about one million people worldwide.
It made health experts to adopt social distancing as a defensive technique to limit its spread; a situation that will be considered as discriminatory before the outbreak of the virus. Attempts are being made to produce vaccines that can curb the anomaly. In one of these attempts, trial drugs have been produced but none were accepted by World Health Organisation (WHO).
Madagascar’s herbal medicine produced during this period to cure the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be forgotten in a hurry as it wasn’t accepted. Do African countries lag behind or is racism playing a fast one in terms of proffering a cure to the pandemic?
While these questions are brought to the table, I begin to ask, what happened to the herbal medicine produced by Madagascar? Is the content of the bottle questionable or has it been swept under the carpet or has the sudden emergence of the Madagascar herbal medicine been considered a threat to orthodox medicine. What about politics; is it brought into this situation?
Since the outbreak of the disease, the death toll has risen provoking questions globally and demanding solutions. Schools were shut down. Markets closed, food stuff prices escalated, church activities and other social gatherings were disrupted, earnings and savings almost depleted. The situation of things during and after the lockdown caused depression and psychological imbalance in people and families.
As the news of schools reopening hit us, students, parents and guardians are buckling to resume their usual responsibilities. And this brings with it unusual challenges as human beings wait to embrace the new normal and return to their usual daily life activities.
Virtual classroom has long been waiting to be properly explored. It’s an interesting thing to say that virtual classroom has come to stay. It comes with it’s own challenges such as data availability, the presence of hackers, the discipline to mind your business online in order to make best use of your data, due to distractions caused by optimized ads by digital marketers.
According to WHO’s press briefing in a virtual meeting, the vulnerable ones to the COVID-19 pandemic include old people above 60 years, diabetic patients and those with respiratory track infection.
What will be the future of the workplace? The new normal becomes the current reality or the future of the workplace, till acceptable solutions are put in place. There is evidence of social distancing, people now have to obey No Mask, No Entry regulation in the workplace, e-learning, the regular washing of hands and use of sanitiser.
The National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has done its bit in promoting safe health measures during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, by sending safe health tips to people. In the words of NCDC via text message I received earlier, “COVID-19 can spread from person to person, malaria cannot”.
It’s interesting, on the one hand, that efforts were made by many people, volunteers, organizations, non-governmental organizations in form of donations. Food, money, physical effort and so on. Advocacy campaigns were made in the media by well-meaning individuals.
It’s appalling that efforts were made by scientists, physicians and other experts to proffer solution to the pandemic, yet the death toll rose, provoking questions and demanding answers. What has the WHO to say? So far, many vaccines have been produced but no one had been approved by the world body.
Due to classroom size in government-owned schools in Nigeria, the government should adopt rotation learning for students. For example, two to three departments to learn in a week. This will enhance the social distancing as bigger halls in the schools should be used for learning, convocation arenas and supported with the use of projector.
Also, some departments, say two to three in the university, should learn in the morning while some start their class afternoon hours and end during evenings, for example 6pm.
More so, institutions of higher learning can also combine the regular learning with some aspect of virtual learning for students to learn at their pace.
Graded assignment and course materials with questions can be sent to their student’s email boxes in video and written text for the student’s to access and learn at their own pace. Meanwhile, very tight security has to be provided.
It’s very important to fumigate schools, workplace, airport and other areas of concern, in order to reduce risk that can cause harm to people during this time.
Natural ventilators such as potted plants need be placed at the corridors of schools, campuses and sides of the classrooms in orderly manner to generate oxygen via photosynthesis to enhance ventilation. The presence of constant power is key as it will help to curb the limitation of tele-education (use of TV and Radio for education).
What’s the new normal we’re faced with? This question becomes very necessary and the current reality remains that COVID-19 has disrupted human affairs and kept scientists, researchers in a state of constant reasoning.
Working from home, maintaining social distancing, regular hand washing, obeying ‘no mask, no entry’ regulation and to keep suspected individuals in isolation centers for some time, e-learning, becomes imperative.
Has COVID-19 come to stay? The world had encountered more deadly infectious disease outbreaks in the past; from Ebola virus to Sars, Tuberculosis… The reality in what human beings can do, will be to live with what they cannot change.
In conclusion, we must keep our ears open to new safe tips for our use in times like this, while eating good food till an approved solution is brought to the table.
Enyi wrote from Port Harcourt.