Alleviating pandemic stress

THE EDITOR: The Government has done a wonderful job in dealing with the covid19 pandemic, which has tested its and the population’s will, strength, creativity and resolve. The Government’s decisive action, in unprecedented times, in closing our borders early and instituting lockdowns drew warranted praise from most quarters as it proved successful in curbing the spread of the dreaded virus from the onset.

It's been a year since the lockdowns were instituted and the authorities continue to grapple with containing the virus spread while citizens seek ways of managing the mental stress brought about.

While travel to and from most countries is now possible again, TT’s borders continue to be closed to commercial traffic. Many are still stranded abroad awaiting exemptions to return home while others have had to endure not being able to visit home to pay last respects to loved ones. Such are the times we are faced with.

The toll on the mental health of citizens over the past year is difficult to measure. Often, in challenging situations, the issue of mental health is not given the attention it deserves. Outdoor physical and extracurricular activities are shown to have positive impacts on mental health while also providing an avenue to relax and get away from being constantly boxed in.

Our beaches are now accessible to the general public and malls and shopping centres are also operational once again. At the same time, recreational sporting activity is also now permitted but is restricted to 22 people; organised sports leagues are not yet permitted to operate.

Is there now an imperative need for a more practical approach to what lockdown measures need to remain and which can be relaxed a bit more?

Food for thought:

Restaurants are now open for dining with some restrictions, including no serving of alcohol. If families or groups of friends are dining, does it really matter, where the spread of covid19 is concerned, if their beverage of choice is a malta or a beer? In the same vein, is it any different if four people are seated together around a table in a bar having a cocktail as opposed to being in a restaurant having a meal and armed with a soft drink?

With beaches open it stands to reason that hundreds of people may gather in an area less than the size of a sporting field, without flouting any gathering restrictions. With up to 22 people allowed for sporting activities it’s permissible that all 22 can gather on, say, a similar size field for a friendly game or while practising.

On the other hand, an organised game of cricket will usually have a maximum of 15 people on the field at any given time – 11 fielding, two batting and two umpiring. A game of organised football will have a maximum of 25 on the park – 22 players and three officials, two of whom are linesmen who will usually not be close to the others. More often than not the distribution of players and officials is such that less than 15 may be in one half of the playing area at a given time.

Logic seems to suggest that having an alcoholic beverage at a restaurant, a cocktail at a bar or playing a game of league cricket or football, or any other sport for that matter, should be no more endangering – as far as the spread of the virus is concerned – than having the ability to gather at beaches, dine at restaurants and gather in groups of 22 for non-league sporting activities.

Similarly, the risk posed by a family not having to wear masks while seated together in the same vehicle for a 30-minute drive can be no greater than the ones posed by the same family sitting at home together and conversing for hours, without masks.

As good a job as the Government has done, especially in the early stages of the pandemic, it is time its pandemic measures continue to evolve, as they should with good governance. More emphasis must now be placed on alleviating the sustained strain on the mental health of citizens.

Surely, loosening measures to allow bars and restaurants to serve alcohol to diners and allowing organised league sports to resume, with measured limitations, will not be any worse, in terms of risks, than the current restrictions contemplate.

A spinoff benefit would be that the businesses concerned will be able to gain some much needed revenue. That can’t be so bad either, can it?

CARLOS RAGOONATH

Toronto