During the lockdown period, we saw how the world stopped. The governments of various countries had to find ways and formulate strategies to deal with the growing burden on the economies. With industries locked down, the whole cycle of income was disrupted as many individuals went out of work while businesses suffered huge losses. While this was happening, the burden on the health care system was tremendous in order to provide safety gear, testing kits, and other equipment to fight the virus. The rising death toll was another stressor. Recently, the world was opened again after the lockdown of several months and the governments felt a sigh of relief. Let’s see how the governments see the ease in lockdown.
With a pandemic going on, obviously, the governments had to step in and provide aid and assistive programs like the California assistance program, unemployment benefits, poor relief funds, etc. They also had to allocate subsidies to various sectors for the minimal running of the departments. With the ease in the lockdown, finally, these programs will be at ease as people will finally go back to help themselves. Relieved from the extra burden, the government can now focus on other departments and initiatives that were put to halt because of the lockdown.
The social class that was most affected by the lockdown was the daily wage earners. These people are usually poor and have no other form of income or savings to rely on. They were highly disturbed during the period of lockdown and could hardly earn bread for their household. There were various protests registered by them that pressured the government to ease the lockdown. The government had to look out for them and deal with their protests to maintain the law and order during the lockdown. With lockdown being eased they can now do their work and earn a daily wage to run the cycle of their homes while the government does not have to worry about the unrest.
The economy was shut down due to the lockdown. The production of several products was stopped along with exports and imports. This put a lot of financial strain on the economy as a whole. The average income and expenditure declined over the period of lockdown. The limited resources were running out due to the extra allocation of resources to the health care system. The government was finding it hard to keep the cycle running of the declining economy. With the lockdown being opened now, the government is hoping that the restoration of economic activities like businesses and new investments would help maintain a certain level of GDP this year.
Although these are some benefits of opening the lockdown from the point of view of the government, we still can not underestimate the threat of COVID 19 present to the entire world. The pandemic has put everyone in a difficult spot, especially the government, however, easing the lockdown may result in a rise in the number of active cases that may cause healthcare systems to collapse given scarce resources available now. Therefore, a smart lockdown has been proposed to deal with the situation.