Lockdown, again!

MOHAMED ISSA AL ZADJALI A fter all, we have only recently come out of one. Countries across the world had mandated lockdowns, with a number of strict measures to restrict the rate of infection. There are some who feel that bringing in another lockdown could stop the spread of the disease, when that didn’t even work the first time, but many families and businesses might not be able to bear the economic impact that comes with it.

Yes, while all of us stayed at home, the curve of infections was flattened, and the hospitals saw a much-needed decrease in the number of cases with which they had to deal. But what of the cost?

Economies of countries all over the world – including

Oman – will take many months, maybe even years to recover. There will be businesses that won’t recover at all: it pains me to see the number of shops that have been forced to shut down in our beloved Sultanate, closed because their owners know they can never recover financially, and restore the businesses to what they once were.

Unfortunately, the economic cost of enforcing a lockdown is far greater than the health costs hospitals have to incur, and while a lockdown may only last for a couple of months, the time taken for business to bounce back is far greater. Many countries simply cannot handle the costs of rebuilding their affected economies after a lockdown.

As a case study, let us look at what happened when Muttrah was closed off from the rest of Oman, once COVID-19 cases began to be reported there. Businesses suffered immensely, as a result of which they had to let go of people, they could not take care of their staff, depriving them of their livelihoods. Consequently, they began facing several problems at home. This is a story that has unfolded the world over and has caused concerns that a large majority of us are facing.

If another lockdown is brought in, Oman and other countries around the world that are currently looking at recession, could be heading for an economic depression, and that will sadly bring with it far worse consequences.

Since the start of the pandemic, Oman’s population has dropped to 4,480,333 in August 2020 from 4,645,249 in March 2020, according to data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information, which shows you that nearly 200,000 people have left the country during the pandemic. These are people who performed many essential services in the country. Their leaving will leave a big gap in terms of contributing to the economy, in terms of skills, talent, and the money they spend, and their departures will take time for us to recover from. And who is to say how many more people, right now, still in Oman, are also preparing to leave at the first chance they get?

If you are sick, or do display the symptoms of COVID-19, please stay at home, isolate yourself, and when you are well, come back to work. Take responsibility for yourself and your community by not ignoring your symptoms. A lockdown does not mean that the virus will go away, all it means is that we are staying away from it, and for how long can we afford to do that?

The virus is not like an unwanted guest or unexpected visitor who waits for a while after you don’t open the door for him, but ultimately goes on his way. Nor is it like an enemy army that decides to end its siege of a city because it has lost too many soldiers. For the foreseeable future, the coronavirus is here to stay, and we need to learn to live with it, but shutting down whole economies is not the answer. We MUST learn to live with the virus and learn how to stop hiding from it if we want our country to flourish and grow.

Look around the world, most countries implemented the lockdown for months, but when the countries opened back, the virus came back. Unfortunately, some businesses never reopened.