Coronavirus: Days After- 3 Things That Could Potentially Happen

The disastrous effects of the coronavirus have been felt around the world. However, countries such as Italy and Spain, who have been some of the worst countries affected by the virus, have begun measures to ease their lockdown measures due to surpassing their peaks, and their fatality rates dropping to their lowest in over a month.

After recovering from his battle with coronavirus, Boris Johnson returned to No 10 Downing Street on the 27th April and has made claims that we are “past the peak”, and an exit strategy is in the works for the end of lockdown.

With all this sounding reasonably hopeful. What should we possibly come to expect when we are finally allowed to leave our houses and be free again?

I have compiled a short, hypothetical list on what I believe may possibly happen when the lockdown period has finished.

1- Pubs and restaurants to experience a boom period.

It is fair to say that many of us are missing some of our favourite restaurants and pubs. So, to say that people will have intentions of eating and drinking out when the lockdown concludes is an understatement.

Restaurants have had the privilege of staying open for delivery, however, pubs have obviously not had that leisure, and it is reported that thousands of UK pubs could potentially go out of business if they do not receive a special bailout.

This has led to various pubs up and down the country turning to crowdfunding to help with their finances.

Hopefully our pubs can be saved, and we can continue to have a pint with our friends and stagger back home in the early hours of the morning.

2- The rise in xenophobia.

Now this could be seen as a stretch, but, with President Trump ignorantly referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and his fixation towards the term, could definitely cause individuals with a like-minded bigoted nature to have a negative attitude to those of an oriental Asian background.

It has been reported in America that cases of hate crime targeted at Asian Americans have been fuelled by coronavirus fears.

Out of all my predictions, this is the main one I hope that doesn’t come to fruition, but you unfortunately can’t rule out the ignorant and misinformed mindsets people have.

3- National sporting events to take longer to readjust than any other form of entertainment.

With the postponement of the sports near and dear to our heart, it was a massive blow to billions of people around the world. With doctors suggesting that fans will not be able to enter stadiums well into 2021, will there be any hope for sporting events anytime soon?

Yes there are conversations and steps being taken towards having sporting events such as football and F1 resume as soon as possible, for hopefuls this would be sometime in July, but with the stadium/bleachers being filled with nothing but hope, would sport spectacles still be worth the watch without the added element of live crowd reactions?

I seem to think so, as companies such as WWE have continued to hold wrestling matches and events such as their world-renowned annual headline show 'Wrestlemania' behind closed doors in small empty arenas.

Alarmingly however, they are managing to continue despite laying off an alarming number of workers and staff just last month.

In the world of sport, I am not sure everyone will prosper from following WWE’s path.

By Michael Rose