RETURN TO PRE-COVID ‘NORMAL’ UNLIKEY
THERE are mixed expectations of returning to normal life, with most sceptical after the damage wrought by the pandemic and lockdown.
Multinational market research and consulting firm, Ipsos, recently conducted a survey for the World Economic Forum to see when life would return to a pre-covid-19 normal.
It found that, on average, across 30 countries and markets surveyed, 59% expected being able to return to something like their normal pre-covid-19 life within the next 12 months. Six percent believed this was already the case, 9% thought it would take no more than three months, 13% believed four to six months, and 32% said seven to 12 months. About 10% of respondents believed it would take more than three years, while 8% believed that it would never happen.
Forty-nine percent of local citizens believed it would take longer than a year for things to return to normal, 36% believed life would return to normal within the next four to 12 months, and 15% believed it would happen within three months.
Professor Koleka Mlisana, co-chairperson of the Covid-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee, believed we needed to just embrace the new normal and move on.
“Virtual meetings have simplified life and resulted in huge travel cost reductions and time savings, so we are unlikely to ever stop. Use of masks protects against Covid-19 infection, yes, but also protects against other respiratory diseases – we saw very few cases of influenza last year. Nobody knows how long the pandemic will last, and the likelihood of it becoming endemic is high, and therefore, prevention interventions will still be necessary,” she said.
Azar Jammine, director of Econometrix, said it was highly unlikely the country would return to economic normality within 12 months.
“The US has spent trillions of dollars into stimulus and are looking to recover within 12 months. Ours will most start around 2022 and could even be 2023 or 2024. We also can’t just expect to return to normal, we need to restructure. Industries like tourism and hospitality are currently the least normal sectors and have suffered greatly,” he said.