In the 227 days since this coun­try record­ed its first COVID-19 case, the biggest chal­lenge has been find­ing the best ways to min­imise the toll on pub­lic health and the econ­o­my while re­turn­ing to some sem­blance of nor­mal­cy.

It is clear, how­ev­er, that pan­dem­ic fa­tigue is start­ing to set in to the ex­tent that Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s me­dia brief­ing on Sat­ur­day was one of the most wide­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed events of the day. The anx­i­ety in some quar­ters was al­most pal­pa­ble.

There was a cau­tious eas­ing of some re­stric­tions but no re­lief yet for the food and bev­er­ages sec­tor where some busi­ness op­er­a­tors claim they are on the brink of per­ma­nent clo­sure. They re­main sub­ject to the very del­i­cate bal­anc­ing act the Gov­ern­ment has been at­tempt­ing un­der the guid­ance of pub­lic health ex­perts.

It is dis­ap­point­ing that the Gov­ern­ment has not yet out­lined a plan for the re­open­ing of bars and restau­rants. An en­tire sec­tor is dy­ing and there is still no clear way for­ward.

Con­sid­er­ing all the loss­es they have al­ready ab­sorbed and their con­tin­ued ef­forts to con­tin­ue op­er­at­ing and main­tain some lev­el of em­ploy­ment, these busi­ness­es should be giv­en much more sup­port.

Ex­press­ing dis­ap­point­ment on be­half of bar and restau­rant own­ers, the T&T Cham­ber, in an im­me­di­ate re­sponse to the mea­sures an­nounced by Dr Row­ley, warned of a risk that "en­tire in­dus­tries, busi­ness­es, and seg­ments of our work­force get left be­hind” with a rip­ple ef­fect through­out the pop­u­la­tion.

There­in lies the chal­lenge. COVID-19 re­mains a clear and present dan­ger with 5,503 pos­i­tive cas­es record­ed since the coro­n­avirus en­tered the coun­try on March 12. That and the grim mile­stone reached last week of more than 100 deaths from the virus high­light the need to con­tin­ue func­tion­ing with the new nor­mal of phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing, fre­quent san­i­tiz­ing and the wear­ing of masks.

On the oth­er hand, there has been a de­bil­i­tat­ing toll on large seg­ments of the pop­u­la­tion from the pro­longed pe­ri­od of re­stric­tion. Busi­ness­es have failed, un­em­ploy­ment has in­creased, and many cit­i­zens are fac­ing mount­ing debts.

The clam­our from na­tion­als still strand­ed out­side of T&T’s closed bor­ders have on­ly added to a very stress­ful sit­u­a­tion

The se­vere lim­i­ta­tions on so­cial and eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty have al­so im­pact­ed on the men­tal health of many and that alone, if left unchecked, will strain health and so­cial ser­vices to a de­gree this coun­try can­not af­ford.

There will have to be a care­ful weigh­ing of these and oth­er fac­tors over the next few days be­cause the cur­rent arrange­ments un­der which cit­i­zens have been ex­ist­ing can­not con­tin­ue in­def­i­nite­ly.

The chal­lenge for Dr Row­ley and his ad­min­is­tra­tion is to win the con­fi­dence and sup­port of cit­i­zens who must con­tin­ue to be­have re­spon­si­bly well af­ter the re­main­ing re­stric­tions are lift­ed and T&T’s bor­ders re­open.

Mis­steps and a grow­ing sense of com­pla­cen­cy sent the coun­try al­most back to square one well in­to the first at­tempt to cau­tious­ly re­sume nor­mal ac­tiv­i­ties which had been tak­ing place on a phased ba­sis from ear­ly May through June.

By Ju­ly, new cas­es of COVID-19 were be­ing de­tect­ed and com­mu­ni­ty spread emerged for the first time in mid-Au­gust.

That is why a strong mes­sage must be sent that T&T is not back to nor­mal and will not be for months, per­haps years to come. The na­tion has no choice but to learn to func­tion in a way that is healthy for so­ci­ety and the econ­o­my.

More than ever, one of our watch­words, dis­ci­pline, must be in full ef­fect.