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OUR VIEW: With response to COVID-19, better to be safe than sorry

If public events need to be cancelled, or schools need to be closed, to prevent further spread of this virus, then so be it
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What lessons have we learned from this COVID-19 crisis?

One, for sure, is to not take good health for granted.

Two, personal hygiene is indeed important, and three, calmer heads need to prevail lest everyone joins the madding crowd that’s been stampeding around with shopping carts, buying up all the toilet paper.

Heaven help us when the big earthquake eventually hits, considering this hysterical, greedy behaviour we’ve seen.

Get a grip, people.

Nothing seems to grip people with lemming-like terror like the threat of a pandemic, witnessed by countless zombie movies and television programs. The coronavirus is of course a macro-level threat, but even on the micro level, the threat of public-borne illnesses can wreak havoc, as did a cluster of Legionnaires’ disease cases in 2018 that arose from contamination of water cooling towers at a local mall.

READ ALSO: Surrey and White Rock ‘weathering the storm’ of COVID-19 threat

READ ALSO: Too early to decide on Surrey Vaisakhi Parade cancellation despite COVID-19 outbreak: Dix

So far this week, at least at this time of writing, three Surrey schools have received a “deep cleaning” as a result of COVID-19, with the most recent being an elementary school that was closed for a day. Scary, yes, but the silver lining is that this is the prudent thing to do. If the district can close schools on account of snow storms, it certainly should do the same in these circumstances.

As we journey together through this coronavirus threat, we are learning new ways of greeting one another, and adapting in the effort to overcome.

If public events need to be cancelled, or schools need to be closed, to prevent further spread of this virus, then so be it.

Meantime, we all wait with bated breath to find out what will happen with the annual Vaisakhi Parade in Newton in April – which typically draws a crowd of more than a half-million people – as well as the Cloverdale Rodeo in May.

Now-Leader



edit@surreynowleader.com

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