A deserted but beautiful downtown Calgary. An un-noticeable downtown Edmonton beckoning for activity. A miserable 118 Avenue in Edmonton with struggling businesses in complete disconnect from the Coronavirus activities at the other end of the city. Streets in Edmonton and Calgary now look as closed to ghost towns as you can find due to the government stay home Coronavirus advice.
How long will this last? Nobody knows.
How long should we keep waiting? No one can tell.
So far, is the lockdown effective in bringing down the rising Coronavirus numbers in Alberta? That depends on who you speak to as the government reactions like the less desirable responses of European and US governments, are reactive rather than precautionary. The governments react to public pressure or when the Caronavirus infected cases or deaths go up, rather than react to anticipation trends.
The government has done an excellent job in testing thousands of people and tracking those who had contact with infested people to help contain the infection, but this success has been neutralized by ineffective social distancing and Coronavirus awareness measures. Initially the government came under intense pressure to shut down schools, they bowed. Next was to shut down businesses, partially on the way. When people are advised to stay indoors while businesses stay open can only inspire a sense of half-hearted measure which will lead to half-hearted result – ineffective social distancing leading to increasing cases of Coronavirus, inconvenience on the population, business shutting down voluntarily, job loses, and of course tough times. International travel has been the biggest initial contributor to Alberta’s Coronavirus infections, needless to say that if a strict management of people coming from abroad was implemented, we will paint a very different Coronavirus picture today.
Well, however, in anticipation to the challenges before they happen, inter-provincial travel especially from heavy Coronavirus heaters like BC, Ontario and Quebec, limited community awareness and knowledge of what to do, and community questioning the effectiveness of measures taken so far with respect to the inconveniences they have to put on with will be the next challenge for the authorities to wrestle with as the number of infected cases in Alberta cross into the second half of the first thousand today.
What is the way forward? Increase the scale of government financial support enough to take care of everyone for the duration of the pandemic as no one knows when the pandemic will end, and most people out of job, including the self employed Canadians, some recently forced to shut down to fall inline with social distancing measures, students with no studies and no jobs, renters at the mercy of the landlords, as well as, the strict implementation of the social distancing measures added to aggressive awareness campaigns at the level of communities engaging and involving community leaders, especially those with limited understanding of English, currently ignored by all levels of government, and all political parties, as if their Coronavirus prevention is less of a priority than the rest.
Any other thing to worry about? Yes sure, falling oil prices and possible recession to embrace us after the grip of the Coronavirus is lifted.
Verdict – devastation on lives, economy, jobs, the poor, pay check -to pay check Canadians for some time to come, much more than anyone can ever imagine.
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