The rise and wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world up. Everyone across the globe has seen their lifestyle transform and adapted to the new focus on hand hygiene and physical distancing to practice prevention. The closure of schools, social gatherings and work places has resulted in a massive usage of internet and social media platforms. Being health care researchers we observed different patterns of how people are reacting to COVID-19 and came across a number of posts that shed light on the various ways people are taking more responsibility of their health.
On the other hand, some people are posting memes that tell how desperately they are waiting for the lock down to get over so that they could get back to their social life routine. In one way this is interesting to note since we get a better idea about how people understand the value of socialization and human to human connection; at the same time it is equally alarming because people still do not realize that social interactions without physical distancing pose a potential future threat of human transmitted infections and diseases.
Everywhere we look, people are making post lockdown plans including but not limited to just resuming their previous routine life. If anything, most of them are desperately waiting to organize reunions and bigger social gatherings, activities which somehow are meant to make up for the socializing time ‘lost’ during this lockdown. What is imperative to keep in mind and constantly remind ourselves is that even though slowly and gradually routine life should resume, the importance of prevention must not be underestimated even when the pandemic burden decreases. Preventive care for self and others must not taper at any cost. A country wide lockdown ensures that people are restricted to their homes, buys our hospitals and health care facilities more time and resources to spend on those who are affected, but at the same time it is not a sustainable solution and will need to end sooner or later. What will come most in handy even post lockdown is practicing preventive hygiene to an extent that it works like second nature for us.
We as a nation need to keep practicing hand hygiene and physical distancing, covering our mouths, avoiding touching our faces and ensuring that we stay home if we are sick. These basic preventive health care strategies should become organic to our system and a model for our future generations to practice.
Dr Shelina Bhamani is an Asst Professor Research and Dr Areeba Makhdoom is a Research Fellow at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Aga Khan University.