Easing of the Circuit Breaker

Today is the first stage of the easing of the lockdown here, or what we called here the ‘Circuit Breaker’. Some shops are allowed to reopen. Shops like the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM ) halls, hair salons, cake shops among them. However, they have to operate within the guidelines, or they will be heavily fined. The government will come down hard on people who infringed these guidelines. They took a very serious view in keeping the Virus under control.

How the times have changed. It used to be you can’t go into a bank, wearing a mask. Now, you can’t go into a bank unless you wear a masked. And, if you were to go into any shop without putting on a mask you wouldn’t be served. Before the pandemic, if you wore a mask, people will try to avoid you. Now, people will try to avoid you if you didn’t wear a mask.

Of the Coronaviruses known to man, this Covid-19 is the most contagious, and its mortality rate is twenty times higher than the flu. Apparently, the virus is able to mutate, and it also seems to affect people differently. Every day, they are discovering new things about the virus, and usually it’s that what they thought of the day before was wrong, or there was more to what they thought the day before.

As of now, doctors and scientists are still trying to understand how the virus works. Because of this, it is difficult to develop a vaccine. Meanwhile, social distancing, wearing a mask, washing your hands regularly, and keeping them from your face are the best prevention of the virus spreading.

Apart from New Zealand and Taiwan, there are still new cases, new deaths everyday. The end of the pandemic is not in sight. If anything, this is just the beginning. If people do not take this Covid-19 seriously, there will be a second wave, or a third wave even.

I don’t think I am being pessimistic by saying that Covid-19 won’t be going away any time soon. My reasons are :- They are much more contagious. Not all infected showed symptoms of infection. They are asymptomatic, and they go around spreading the virus unknowingly, making contact tracing very difficult. People who have recovered are not necessarily immune, they can still be infected again.

I hope I am wrong in my assessment of the situation. If I were, we can jump for joy then, but it is better to play it safe, and make sure that we got rid of the virus totally before we bring out the champagne.

While we should take the pandemic seriously, it doesn’t mean that we cannot make fun, or have some fun out of it. For indeed, I am sure that years later, when we look back on today we will all have a good laugh, remembering the pandemic - like how people were stocking toilet papers!

Anyway, here are some memes and humorous quips on the Covid-19 virus, which I gleaned from Facebook pages, Whatsapp messages and other social medias. Where possible, I have sourced them. Have a laugh. Laughter is cheap medicine, and the best medicine. A hearty laugh lengthens your life.

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