By Giovanni Quirino

In the past two months we have been in lock down quarantine and I believe it was the best decision to do for the circumstances that have found ourselves. There have been many changes throughout the past two months. If anyone said in the middle of March that we would all be afraid to go outside and where masks everywhere we go, I would have laughed.

Now restaurants are only being able to do delivery or pick-ups, or stores only allowing a certain amount at a time and also they are only allowed in if they have a mask and gloves. One of these changes was even to close the parks, but now they have been opened again. It is tough to get things unless it is being delivered. Stores still do not have a great stock or selection, but everyone is doing their best to make the most of this.

At first the decision to close the parks made no sense to me. But then, thinking about it I began to think of the reasoning behind it. Then I realized that this choice was the best because while we were not attending school many people including myself were going out to the park every day. There were many people in the park without any masks and not practicing social distancing. So, this was a good idea to stop the massive spreading of the virus. During this time I was stuck inside and lessened my and other people’s chances of contracting the infection.

I am not completely sure about the stats, but I would believe that the stats show that when they closed the park there might have been a decrease in the infection rate. Even though many people did not follow this rule and continued to go to the park. This was established for I believe a month. But recently they have announced that the parks will be opened again. It has been around two weeks since the announcement. Even though I thought it was a mistake to close the parks in the first place, now that I have seen people in the parks after they have been reopened, I believe the decision to reopen was a mistake.

I strongly believe this because when I was at the park, many people did not wear their mask or keep their distance. This will begin to increase the infection rate because of the lack of care from the people at parks. When I went to the park I thought it might just have been in that one park. I went out looking for more parks, I realized that this was common. It was because people are not taking this seriously that I have stopped going to parks. Although this is a way to begin to get us back to normal, I don’t think this will benefit us but rather hurt us. This will cause us to stay in lockdown longer and bother the people that are following the rules and keeping their distances.

My advice is to stay safe. Even though it is nice out, do not forget to keep your distance and stay protected. If the disease spreads again, then all the parks will be closed again and this will just last longer. Do your part in the park.