As of Friday in Alabama, people are allowed to go to a nail salon. In California, people are swimming at the beach. There are many states that are reopening public facilities. But the question is, is it okay to reopen this soon?

   On Saturday, March 16th, Bibechana Pandey (9) went to Burke Lake Park with her family. After a long time in quarantine, they needed to refresh themselves. Officially, the park was opened, but they put on their masks to keep themselves safe. When they arrived at the park, there were so many people out there riding a bike, jogging, and exercising. However, almost half of the people weren’t wearing masks. Bibechana Pandey (9) said, “My family just wanted to take a walk and eat lunch, but so many people were passing us without masks on, so we had to 

finish our lunch as fast as we could.” Like this, there are a lot of people who don’t think this situation is serious.

   On April 12th, Singapore decided to reopen all facilities including schools. The government thought that the pandemic had been weakened, but it was wrong. Singapore was a “disaster model country” that the world paid attention to. Only a month ago, there were just 166 confirmed cases, but after reopening, confirmed cases have doubled. This is because a group infection occurred at a kindergarten on the 25th of last month, two days after the school opened. In the face of mounting criticism, the Singaporean government changed its decision for schools to return to home-based learning. Certainly, people are still keeping a social distance when they go out and only some facilities are reopening. However, it doesn’t mean that the pandemic is over. This is the time when we really have to be careful.

   As states are reopening, there will likely be numerous outbreaks at once. That will strain the nation’s capacity to respond. Also worrisome is that many of these outbreaks will occur in rural communities that already struggle with a lack of hospitals and health-care workers. As a society, people need to protect themselves and others with social distancing. Your ignorance not only affects you but everyone else as well. Most importantly, stay home if you can. Social distancing is a privilege that many do not have.