Brace for a long war on COVID-19

If you’ve ever climbed a high hill, you’ll know the top is always farther away than you first thought.

As the minutes pass, as your legs strain, your breath quickens and you start to sweat, you look up with the painful realization that you’ve barely started your ascent and your goal — the pinnacle — is almost as distant as when you began. The hardest work is entirely to come, and you can barely believe it.

That’s how it is with Canadians and COVID-19. We all know where we want to go: to a country where people are no longer getting sick or dying from the coronavirus that caused a global pandemic.

But only now are we beginning to comprehend how much effort that journey will entail. And what a long journey it will be. We’re still at the bottom of the hill.

The past 11 days of unprecedented changes in Canada brought about by COVID-19 seem an eternity. So much in this country is suddenly different from before.

Our borders are almost entirely closed. Ontario and multiple other provinces have declared a state of emergency. Schools, daycares, libraries, community centres, restaurants, bars — along with so many other places where people meet — are locked up. Businesses and industries have shut down, laying off hundreds of thousands of workers.

Already, many of us are weary of the new normal. Many, if not all, of us are doing what public health officials are telling us to do. We’re washing our hands — and singing “Happy Birthday” to ensure we do it long enough.

Millions of Canadians are self-isolating at home and for those who do venture out, social distancing — keeping two metres from everyone else — has replaced the handshake.

But we’re bored. We’re tired. We’re impatient. We’re worried not just about an illness but the shock it has sent reverberating through our economy.

But here’s the really hard part. No one knows exactly how long this “new normal” will last and how long it will be before when we can go back to the “old normal.” If we ever can.

Last week, public health officials in Alberta warned the peak of COVID-19 infections may not come for weeks and that the drastic measures that have taken over our lives will likely have to continue until the end of May. And that’s just a rough estimate. Other health officials are reluctant to even hint at when the number of new COVID-19 cases will peak, or when governments can ease up on even some of the drastic measures they’ve imposed.

There is some comfort in knowing that after roughly two months China, where COVID-19 first appeared around the end of last year, finally seems to be winning its all-out war on the coronavirus.

At the end of last week and after recording 3,248 deaths in nearly 81,000 cases of COVID-19, Chinese authorities were reporting three new deaths and just 39 new cases. That’s cause for hope, in China and everywhere.

But behind the numbers is a warning: If the Chinese people aren’t vigilant, if they let up their guard it’s entirely possible that COVID-19 could again start spreading like wildfire.

And so for Canadians, the message should be clear. How long COVID-19 lasts in this country will depend upon how hard each of us fights it today and every day — for weeks and months to come.

So look up. See what lies ahead. Wash your hands. Keep two metres away from the person beside you. And start climbing out of this pandemic.