People need to adapt to new situation as vaccine eludes Covid-19

As the World Health Organisation (WHO) has stressed that there is no valid vaccine against the new coronavirus (Covid-19), making it a daily fact that people have to deal with it, the world has to adapt and live up with it adopting all the necessary preventive measures of protection set forth by the concerned health authorities.

Accordingly, a number of Qatari knowledgeable persons have spoken to local Arabic daily Arrayah saying that the people have to change some of their usual habits and daily practices to adapt to the requirement of the new situation and lead their social life as normal as possible while abiding the related regulations most importantly keeping adequate physical distance from each other, washing hands more frequently and avoiding touching surfaces in public places. Besides, public places such as commercial complexes, shopping malls, souqs, parks and other similar facilities could introduce automated sanitisation gates, where each person entering the place should go through, and all persons entering the place should be wearing face masks and abide by the set regulations, in particular maintaining adequate social distance.

Dr Abdulnasser al-Yafei, associate dean, College of Arts and Sciences at Qatar University, pointed out that that anything or behaviour that may lead to physical proximity or contact should be limited and modified, and people should resort to technology to decrease their potential chances of the need for direct physical proximity.

Regarding the social occasions and gatherings such as condolences, many people have already agreed that these should be conducted only through the various means of communications. For weddings, it should be limited to as less number of people as possible within the same family. It is also a good opportunity for young people to avoid the very high cost of elaborate weddings and save the money to start their marriage.

People should also change their ways of shaking hands, hugging and kissing and replace this with remote gesture indicating the same. He stressed that people should get used to this to restore their normal life again as soon as possible.

Dr Mohamed al-Anzi, specialist in behavioural psychology, pointed out that coexistence with Covid-19 mainly depends on the degree of the awareness of the society and the commitment of its members to follow strictly the preventive precautionary measures in place.

He stressed that when people are aware of the involved issues and related information, they would confidently embrace the necessary changes and abandon unreasonable fears and worries about the disease. He further explained that it is an issue of adapting to the new requirements and lifestyle changes that may take some time, but it is completely manageable.

Dr Latifa al-Nuaimi, a professor at Qatar University, stressed that maintaining the personal hygiene practices would be considered one of the basics of prevention against Covid-19. Besides, people should adopt healthy lifestyles and choices in food, sports and daily practices to enhance their immune system. Even more sanitisation machines should be installed in all the key areas to avail the people the necessary means of prevention.