Lockdown Part - 2

Mehfil

An interesting talk show between people of different ages and from different countries of the world: Canada( Montreal), France- Paris, UK ( Wales), (Pakistan - Karachi & Lahore ) and USA (Boston). The talk show was very long so I have divided it into 3 parts. I am sharing also written answer to my question no.2 of Nadia from the USA who was unable to participate in the show. Introduction: My name is Nadia. I live in Massachusetts, USA. 2. In our state of Massachusetts, the state of emergency was declared on the 10th of March. A state of emergency is a situation in which a government can impose policies that it would normally not be permitted to undertake. In the United States, the governor of each state is responsible for implementing state laws. When a state of emergency was announced, our governor announced school closures for a few weeks which he eventually extended to the whole academic year. He implemented closure of all non-essential businesses (only grocery stores, pharmacies, medical facilities, banks were open) He issued a stay at home advisory. People were allowed to leave the house for walks. Hiking Trails were still open. Since it was only a stay at home ‘advisory’ and not an ‘order’, no one could be fined or stopped by the police for leaving the house or meeting. People in the US do not respond well to such measures. They like their freedom to make their own decisions. Of course, with everything close, they couldn’t go out much. In our state, the majority of the people took the advisory seriously but there were still people who were meeting and visiting other people. A lot of people who were on daily wages suffered from the lockdown as they were without jobs and were getting impatient. By the end of May, there were small protests to open up the state. There are many who still think that lockdown was not needed and their rights were taken away when businesses were closed down forcing them to stay home. People now have started to become more relaxed as the number of cases continues to go down Alhamdolillah. Massachusetts is in the process of opening up now. It is opening in different phases. Right now we are in Phase 2 and if all goes well, by the end of June everything will be open. When leaving our homes, masks are compulsory to wear in situations where maintaining social distance is not possible. Right now, it is still not clear whether schools will open in fall, continue with remote learning, or implement a hybrid format. Till now, Massachusetts has 105,000 confirmed cases with over 7,500 deaths.