It’s tough to think of a world post COVID-19, let alone how and when the Canadian economy will open up.
Moving too quickly could put us right back at square one, so a University of Waterloo professor says the most prudent approach would be to have more of a soft opening of certain sectors.
“We identify businesses or sectors of the economy that could be safely reopened, where workers can remain safe,” Craig Janes, Director of UW’s School of Public Health and Health Systems tells The Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS.
“We’ll probably have to think about opening schools and daycares if we do that, because you can’t send workers back to work if their children don’t have any place to go.”
He says there needs to be a lot of thought into how schools and daycares reopen, so they’re safe when the time comes.
“Those are going to be some complicated decisions that will have to be made at that point,” Janes says.
He says aggressive amounts of testing and follow up will have to be in place beforehand, so they can be “more surgical” in their approach to prevent and mitigate more spread of the virus.
“If there’s someone whose infected, we can intervene immediately, we can get them isolated,” he said.
Janes goes on to say any decision-making will also have to go along with the COVID-19 situation in the United States.
“We’re very interconnected with the United States,” he said, “They have a lot of people moving back and forth, even with travel restrictions.”
“We’re always going to be a potential for reintroducing infections from the south.”
