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Some COVID practices that are worth keeping

Gov. Tim Walz last week was speaking hopefully to business leaders about a possible turn of the COVID-19 dial to ease restrictions this summer, including a nearly normal Minnesota State Fair.

His hopes were based on increasing immunization rates and a downward trend for new cases. We do need to keep pressing for more vaccinations, state officials say, and we can’t ease up on basic precautions for staying healthy. But there is some hope that we could be returning to normal sooner rather than later.

When that day does come when we are back to our normal lives, there are a few things we’ve learned to do during the pandemic that we could probably continue to do. These are practices that are better than what we normally used to do.

Health and Hygiene: When things go back to normal, we hope people will continue the better hygiene habits we have picked up. Let’s keep washing our hands a lot and more thoroughly, covering our sneezes and coughs and just staying home when we’re sick instead of trying to tough it out at work. If it works for COVID, it should work for colds and flu and other contagious bugs.

Work Practices: Before COVID-19, people accepted that going to work meant going outside the home to an office or other building. The pandemic has shown us a lot of people can be just as productive working from home. We don’t think working at home is going to replace all offices, but a lot of people have done what they previously thought was impossible or impractical and this could change the way we work going forward.

Schooling: We have learned that in-school, face-to-face learning is preferable, but in some cases, long-distance learning can be an option. It may do away with snow days, however. Sorry kids.

Zoom Meetings: All over the country, city councils, county boards and school boards have learned to hold meetings via live streaming applications like Zoom. It works, and it gives the public easier access than heading down to city hall to sit in on a meeting. We’d like to see that access continue.

Let’s take the good that we’ve learned during the pandemic and keep using it.

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