KT edit: Prepare for careful coexistence with the coronavirus

What a time it is to live in history! To know that an invisible virus can not only threaten your existence, but also your sustenance. Today, the impact of the pandemic is not only being felt in the medical wards treating Covid-19 patients, but also the homes we live in, the theatres we once visited so often, the gyms and cafes we once frequented. Aiming to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure against the onslaught of Covid-19, countries after countries imposed strict lockdowns. Not an exercise in futility, given that the social distancing measures did contain the spread of the virus. But while we take heart in that aspect of lockdowns, it's useful to acknowledge how the virus has also cost us our life as we (once) knew it. Thriving is a thing of the past, survival is the new goal. In the US, it took under a month for 20 million Americans to lose their jobs. The European Union has already recorded a sharp decline of 3.5 per cent in the first quarter, with France and Italy already in recession. In India, a prolonged lockdown has resulted in a migrant exodus that further threatens to halt economic activities once the lockdown is fully lifted. Keep the economics aside, and images of labourers walking barefoot on the street or being mowed by a train have already been haunting collective consciousness.

There are no statistics on the ground, only lives - of people like us and many others who are far less privileged to afford a complete shutdown. Today, even if the novel coronavirus spares you, its economic outcome won't. This is why, despite being the ground zero of Covid-19, Wuhan - and China, at large - has been slowly and steadily opening its economic operations. Italy and Spain have already begun to ease the restrictions. Many others are poised to restart air travel. The lessons for the governments are clear - public health has to be balanced with economic good. There are no choices anymore, only need of the hour. Perhaps it does help that the World Health Organization, the body responsible for monitoring public health globally, has finally stopped mincing words and conceded that we may have to live with the virus in foreseeable future, until someone, somewhere comes up with a vaccine. Until then, the world has to prepare for a careful co-existence.