It’s been one year since the first COVID-19 case in the U.S. was reported and as America just surpassed 500,000 deaths and 28 million confirmed COVID-19 cases. We might be able to get a glimpse of a tiny dazzling light at the end of the tunnel, even if it still doesn’t look so near or marvelous. On January 1st, California had an average of 40,148 COVID-19 cases a day, and now, it’s averaging 6,828 cases a day, a very impressive and substantial decrease of 83% in these past two months. Additionally, more efficient and safe vaccines, such as Johnsons & Johnsons’ are being developed and will likely be approved within the next few weeks. Even though new coronavirus variants have been discovered and vaccine supplies have not been as reliable, the U.S. slowly leans toward fewer reported cases everyday, also aiming herd-immunity within a year. How reopening plans are doing so far?
As of Wednesday, February 24, San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin Counties moved into the Red Tier of infections, or simply moving from Tier 1 to Tier 2 after harsh months in the Purple Tier. Now high schools, such as SMHS, have reported they finally started their reopening plans for the remaining spring semester, possibly having some students returning to campus 14 days after the county enters the Red Tier and most likely aiming for full in-person attendance in the upcoming school year.
Currently, restaurants, gyms, shopping malls, barbershops, places of worship, movie theaters and some family entertainment centers will have modified and improved outdoor and indoor activities. This is great news for small businesses throughout the county. Perhaps we will see a small bump in the economy of the county, such as restaurants, stores and gyms hiring more employees, since there will be a much greater number of customers visiting these public places with those new guidelines.
In order to move to the next tier, the Orange Tier, positive rates and fewer spread of the coronavirus must be reviewed; consequently, loosening even more public restrictions in the county, which can happen in the near future. Soon enough, with optimism and a little bit of good luck, students will slowly come back to campus and Americans will gradually restart their “normal lives.”