Post-Covid? It seems more like living with it…

It seems like most of the world already forgot about Covid-19 and all its variants. The UK now acts like there was no pandemic at all with its new guidance regarding self isolation which allows you to basically do anything you want when you are tested positive.

You can isolate of course, if you want to, but there is no law requirement to do so anymore. You can live “normally”. 

Very few people are seen wearing masks on trains and in shops. People who loved partying before the pandemic are going out as they used to before. Distancing between people no longer exists (well, it’s hard to say it ever did). Unless it was in a line in a shop, and you actually had to stand on a sticker cross on the floor so the shop attendant doesn’t come and tell you where you have to move; not too many people cared. 

House parties are back on. Friends are meeting again as often as they can. Everyone is going holidays abroad. Heathrow Airport is hiring 12,000 staff for the summer time, because it fears it won’t be able to handle the expected wave of travellers. 

And so it seems like it is quite accurate to talk about post-covid world when it feels like you live in one. To not have to worry about the restrictions that came with it.

But has the pandemic really ended? Or do we just want to forget it and already start planning everything for when it’s really over? Or maybe we just don’t care and worry anymore? 

Hopefully the lifting of restrictions and being able to live a, well, kind of “normal” life will help our mental health

In last few days, the number of people infected is growing. The Guardian said that “the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, based on swabs from randomly selected households, reveal an estimated 2,073,900 people in the community in England had Covid in the week ending March 5, equating to 3.8% of the population or about one in 25 people. The week before, the figure was about one in 30.” 

So are hospital admissions although public health officials said earlier this week that most of the patients with Covid were there for different reasons. The lifting of all the restrictions is making it hard to track the infected.

It all seems more like “living with covid” than living after it. We are adjusting to it, learning how to live with it. It was obvious from the beginning that we won’t be able or want to live with all the limitations on our life forever.

Society is trying to cope with all we have been through in the past two years, and hopefully the lifting of restrictions and being able to live a, well, kind of “normal” life will help our mental health.

But Covid-19 hasn’t left, it is still in the air, moving around, infecting people. At the moment, it seems inaccurate to think we’re in a post-Covid society.

Feature image by Caniceus via Pexels.