By Melissa Castillo

When there were first suspicions of the coronavirus in late 2019, the United States, specifically New Jersey, didn’t really take it seriously. It was presented rarely on the news channels and when it was spoken of it was the Wuhan China virus. It was not something that would affect us here in the United States. We do not get pandemics like this.

As the months went by, the coronavirus was practically ignored in many senses until around February and March. During this month, the coronavirus started getting more serious and people were starting to panic because of the increasing death rate. More and more people in New Jersey started getting infected and this is when the government really started taking action. New Jersey was underprepared and didn’t expect the coronavirus to blow up to be this huge and because of this the economy, education and everyone’s lives have changed drastically.

To begin with, New Jersey’s response to the coronavirus was very late and this caused a drastic, negative change in the economy. Many jobs started closing down, people were getting infected at their jobs, and others lost their job completely. Since less people are going to work, that means less money is being produced, which is of course not a good thing for the economy. It was not until a few weeks ago that Governor Murphy decided to enforce rules that forced people to wear masks and gloves in order to enter a store. Obviously, he was a bit late with that enforcement because many people were going to stores without a mask and were permitted entrance when the coronavirus was already starting to become severe.

Moving on, New Jersey’s response to the pandemic in terms of education and schools was very unorganized, to say the least. Students and staff had no idea what was going to happen for the next few weeks so many schools started giving students Chromebooks “just in case,” in a very short span on time. Many things were rushed and some students didn’t even receive Chromebooks until a few weeks after the last physical day of school.

The last few days at school in Passaic High School specifically, were very overwhelming and messy in general. School calendars kept being changed and many things were being altered, which confused a lot of students and staff. Eventually, things got under control and Passaic High School is finally settled, for the most part.

In addition to this, because of the late response to the pandemic, everyone’s lives have changed dramatically. People are afraid to come outside of their house even with a mask and gloves on. Many lives have been taken due to the virus which has destroyed families. Certain people have had to be quarantined away from their families because they don’t want to spread it. Schools are closed and many jobs have closed as well. Certain families may not even have the money to buy things they need in order to survive because of the fact that their jobs closed down. The coronavirus has most definitely affected everyone’s lives in a very negative way.

New Jersey’s response to COVID-19 was very late and unorganized. Lives might have been saved and less affected by this pandemic if the state government took a more active role more quickly. Our state didn’t really take the necessary precautions and action until a few months ago when the death and infected rate started increasing at a quick rate. Schools were closed down and remote learning is now taking place. Many people lost their jobs and only essential workers are working now and the economy has plummeted because of this. Certain laws were enforced to slow down the spread of the virus, but not everyone follows those laws which is another issue.

In general, everyone’s lives changed drastically after this virus exploded and things took a really bad turn because of how late New Jersey reacted to it. If people start sticking to the rules and being mindful of others’ lives, eventually the virus will go away and things will finally go back to normal.