The ‘New Normal’​ Is Not a Pass to Let The Coronavirus Be

People’s safety is non-negotiable and the ‘New Normal’ should first and foremost adhere to the value of it.

Disclaimer: this article was originally published on LinkedIn on June 1st, 2020. Click here to see it. Also, this is an opinion of my own. No establishment is represented by this article

A while ago, the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo said in a press conference that we need to ‘make peace’ with the novel Coronavirus as the vaccine is being developed. His statement caused frenzy among people on the internet to which the Presidential Secretariat Deputy of Protocol, Press, and Media Bey Machmudin clarified that the President meant to imply the need of some adjustment in a new way of living or what it is called: the “New Normal”

Not long after, the buzz around the “New Normal” is getting louder that the government intended to ‘relax’ — even considering to lift — its 2-months effort to curb the virus: social distancing strategy, or commonly known as Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar (PSBB),by the early of June. Simulation has even been conducted in Summarecon Mall Bekasi, with the President attending the event. Indonesia’s police and national army are expected to conduct monitoring in several areas and there are rumours that the government is setting up protocols for this. Questions raised upon this strategy, but essentially, it goes down to one tiny question: is that all?

Making peace with the virus

Until today, there are approximately 327.000 lives taken by the Coronavirus around the world, 1613 of them are from Indonesia. There are also reports of second wave attacks, new symptoms and possible mutations of the virus. The effect from this is nothing far from worse: some of them are the economy relapse, spike of unemployment rate, uncertainty looming for an unknown period of time, and mental health getting compromised.

That shows just how jeopardizing the virus is. In a course of six months it sets the world in peril and causes turmoil everywhere. Then, for this reason, being at peace with the virus is definitely neither an option nor a way out. Its presence on earth will always be dangerous. If anything, it is potential to cause more fatalities in the future if we do not do enough to eradicate it. Attempts on it can not be reduced. Developing vaccine itself is not enough. Massive efforts are required more than anything and it goes down to every individual’s contribution on it. As WHO Executive Director Michael Ryan stated that while the virus may never go away in near time, the fight has to carry on.

Thus, if Indonesia chooses to conduct a ‘new normal’ in a time where the number of casualties is still high, we should understand that the new way of life have to come with immense course of actions on the virus

“New Normal” : a set of improvements, new rules, values, and habits

The ‘new normal’ indicates a brand-new way of life. What used to be normal before the pandemic has become outdated. With the virus still glooming over, this new way of life can not be taken for granted. Supervision by the police and the army on several areas is not enough. Measures to conduct this have to be comprehensive, such as (but not limited to) :

• Overall improvement on public health system (the governance, coordination, surveillance, financing, access to healthcare, etc). Coronavirus did a huge blow to the current public health system across the world, including Indonesia. It shows the best and the worst of it and persuades to put more attention on it
• Sufficient capacities and capabilities of handling the virus such as assurance on health workers’ safety and security, tight monitoring and contact tracing, high testing rate
• New rules and regulations. This does not apply only to monitor people’s movements, but also to accompany other measures to prevent the virus spread
• Improvement on the coordination among institutions
• New habits : this goes down to individuals. It is necessary that everyone should be more conscious on health and hygiene: wear masks to any place we go, wash our hands, be more cautious when experiencing symptoms of flu/any sickness. Moreover, we should support the advocacy on the importance of health and hygiene in the society, encouraging by doing it ourselves and creating examples to our closest surroundings. Any little act will give an impact for a long time

‘New Normal’ should not be conducted at the expense of people’s well-being. People’s safety is non-negotiable and the ‘New Normal’ should first and foremost adhere to the value of it. The ’New Normal’ is not, and should never be, a pass to let Coronavirus be. Yes, we have to go on with our lives, but bear in mind that the adjustment in our new habits and activities should include us putting an effort, contributing to prevent the virus spread and thus eliminating the deadly virus from the world. (***)

Written by Ailsa, whose silver anniversary of life happened this year and gladly celebrated it with her cat, books, and foods while #DirumahAja