One year ago, people were living their everyday lives normally. We did not have to wear masks, social distance, or worry about how many people were allowed in a building. Today, there are still people who are living like this despite the pandemic. It has almost been a year since our first issued stay-at-home order, and now, a second stay-at-home advisory was issued to Chicago starting on Monday, November 16th. According to CNN News, this will order will last for thirty days and extend over Thanksgiving. We are “advised” to not have guests over, which means that we are also advised to cancel our Thanksgiving festivities. They also recommend that we should only leave our homes for work, school, and grocery shopping. This mandate is happening due to the rising cases in Illinois. According to ABC 7 News, there were 15,415 new cases reported on Friday, with 5,362 hospitalized and 27 deaths.
The reason why cases are not decreasing is that most people are not following the rules put in place to prevent the virus from spreading. For example, when I have gone to the grocery store, I would encounter several people who do not wear their masks correctly and sometimes even have them off. On top of that, there are several workers and some businesses that do not enforce mask mandates or tell their customers to wear their masks properly. I have also witnessed people posting on their Snapchat stories at bars where no one is wearing a mask or social distancing. There are a lot of people who do not realize how dangerous catching COVID-19 is and how much danger they are putting those around them by not being cautious.
At this point, people need to realize the reason COVID-19 will not stop spreading is because of their actions. It does not matter how much laws, rules, or advisory orders are issued if no one follows them. For example, State governments instructed restaurants to halt dining in, but several businesses are refusing to follow this order. A CBS article talks about restaurants and bars in Chicago ignoring the mandate. A restaurant owner states that their business would not survive if they had to force a shutdown due to a rise in Coronavirus infections. At the same time, many restaurants have also not been adhering to social distancing guidelines or enforcing the proper way to wear masks. Keeping their indoor dining open and available open endangers their workers and customers and can make them more prone to catching COVID-19.
Stopping the virus from spreading would have been so much easier if people followed the rules and guidelines from the beginning of the pandemic. However, a good portion of people continue to ignore these guidelines, which have caused the government to issue this stay-at-home advisory order. If people continue to neglect these rules, everything could end up closing again.