Sometime in July, we met up at a local playground with friends whose children are the same age as our 7- and 4-year-olds. Everyone was masked, and it was basically the first time we had socialized with people we weren’t related to since March. For the first 20 minutes of the play date, the children completely ignored each other. They’d make brief eye contact and then go careening off to different parts of the park.
As I watched the children appear to flee from social connection, I broke into a light sweat: Had they forgotten how to relate to other kids while under quarantine?
When we asked NYT Parenting readers for their most pressing concerns, some version of the above was the most frequently asked question: How will masks, social distancing and lack of interaction with other children affect their kid’s social and emotional development? For example, reader Ariel Wittenberg, mom to a 7-month-old in Arlington, Va., wrote, “The thing that keeps me up at night is what it means that my daughter essentially has no idea other babies exist. Is she going to have problems socializing in the future?”......
From unusual headwear to unique modes of transport, citizens across the world have turned to inventive means to go about their daily lives while still respecting social distancing rules.
In Portugal, a nursing home is using a crane to allow families to visit loved ones confined within the building.
In Canada, one Ontario resident has invented a "hug glove" to embrace her mother on Mother’s Day.
In India, a mechanic has invented a novel way to get around during the coronavirus crisis by building a motorbike where the passenger sits more than a metre away from the driver......
Like the United States, many countries around the world are trying to figure out, in real time, how to respond to the novel coronavirus. Different countries have experienced and responded to the pandemic in different ways, and some have been more successful than others in managing the impacts due to a variety of factors—from testing rates to the extent to which positive cases were isolated. Now, after weeks, if not months, of lockdowns, some countries are beginning to slowly reopen their economies, while others continue to struggle with the spread of COVID-19. As the United States considers how to safely reopen its economy, it should look to these international experiences and develop policy responses to ensure a sustained U.S. public health and economic recovery.
It is important to understand how and why, for instance, South Korea, New Zealand, and Taiwan have been so successful, while Italy and Spain have struggled; and in the case of Singapore, it looked successful at first but is now experiencing a resurgence in cases. But there are some general lessons that the United States can learn from others in terms of how to begin reopening the economy safely. Above all else, it must act quickly to mitigate the virus’s spread; reopen businesses in measured, careful steps, only after there has been significant progress in slowing the spread of the virus; and have in place adequate testing and contact tracing, which will allow for evidence-based decision-making......
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends people should keep at least 1 metre away from each other to protect against coronavirus. This kind of social distancing, together with regular handwashing, is key in efforts to halt the spread of COVID-19.
It’s estimated that about a third of the world’s population is under lockdown in their own homes, and, in many countries, social distancing is being enforced by the police. However, people still need to go out to buy food and medicine. Here’s a selection of images showing social distancing in practice across the globe.......
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis. Many countries have implemented restrictions on population movement to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and prevent health systems from becoming overwhelmed; some have instituted full or partial lockdowns. However, lockdowns and other extreme restrictions cannot be sustained for the long term in the hope that there will be an effective vaccine or treatment for COVID-19. Governments worldwide now face the common challenge of easing lockdowns and restrictions while balancing various health, social, and economic concerns. To facilitate cross-country learning, this Health Policy paper uses an adapted framework to examine the approaches taken by nine high-income countries and regions that have started to ease COVID-19 restrictions: five in the Asia Pacific region (ie, Hong Kong [Special Administrative Region], Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea) and four in Europe (ie, Germany, Norway, Spain, and the UK). This comparative analysis presents important lessons to be learnt from the experiences of these countries and regions. Although the future of the virus is unknown at present, countries should continue to share their experiences, shield populations who are at risk, and suppress transmission to save lives......