The 6 Factors Societies Need to Reopen

The World Health Organization has established guidelines for governments to follow in order to end restrictions while minimizing the transmission of the coronavirus.

With many countries under stay-at-home orders or mandatory lockdowns, and millions of people without jobs, the question many are wondering is: when will this all end?

In the United States, many citizens are staging protests against stay-at-home orders across the country, asking their state governments to end the restrictions. California’s governor has laid out a “road map” of the state’s plan to recover, and President Trump laid out a widely criticized plan last week for “opening up America again.” But the question of how to reopen for the rest of the world remains.

The WHO laid out a guide last week with six key factors that need to happen in order to start reopening society again. The guide notes that until a successful vaccine is created and distributed, these six indicators will need to occur for restrictions to phase out:

1. New cases are sporadic or in “clusters,” and traceable.
2. Health care systems can effectively detect, test, isolate, and quarantine patients.
3. Outbreaks in settings at high risk for infection, such as group living facilities, are minimized.
4. Workplaces are able to establish preventative measures.
5. Travelers with suspected cases can be managed by being placed on quarantine.
6. Communities are fully engaged and responsible for containing the virus.

The guide also says that transitioning must be based on accurate data on case numbers, along with hospitals and health care providers’ ability to treat those cases. It also recommends that countries introduce the transition in phases, to avoid reigniting another outbreak. Experts should assess the risk of reopening schools and businesses, and then move on to social activities like sporting events and concerts. Ideally, the guide continues, a new phase should be introduced every two weeks, because of the incubation period of COVID-19.

Even with this strategy update, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the “worst is yet to come.”

“Let’s prevent this tragedy,” Tedors said. “It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”

As of April 20, 2020, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.4 million people worldwide, leading to the deaths of at least 169,000 people, according to the John Hopkins University tracker. Many countries have been under stay-at-home or lockdown restrictions since March. In Wuhan, China, where COVID-19 was first reported in December 2019, the city started its reopening earlier this month after a strict lockdown of nearly ten weeks.