Businesses opening to 25 percent capacity is a necessary step in restarting the economy and trying to bounce back from the pandemic. 

Now, I don’t know how many people have been following how the economy has been doing since the beginning of quarantine, but in short, it’s not good. A big reason for this is people can’t go to work because of quarantine unless they are an essential worker. Of course, this was necessary during the peak of the pandemic to stop infection and protect people who were vulnerable to the virus; however, since the virus is starting to level out in infections we need to start returning to work. 

This doesn’t mean that we will have a jump to 100 percent capacity in the span of a few days. With the state’s current plan, they will increase capacity as it is seen to be safe to do so. At the same time, businesses are taking precautions such as seating different customers 6 feet apart from each other. People who don’t agree with this course of action are saying that we should keep waiting it out in quarantine, so more people don’t  get infected. To an extent, they are correct. At risk populations, such as those with autoimmune disorders and people ages 65 and older should probably keep quarantining until it’s all clear. However, last time I checked, a majority of my peers, and people in our community are not 65 and older and don’t have an autoimmune disorder. This opening won’t affect a majority of the students in the district because we are in a healthy and safe age demographic.

So, at this point, the advantages of staying in lockdown and quarantine do not outweigh the drawbacks of small businesses struggling to continue paying their employees, the economy struggling overall, people losing their jobs and the mental toll of having to stay in quarantine. It’s time to start opening businesses and get back to work or else all of those drawbacks are going to get even more severe. The longer we stay in complete lockdown with only essential services open, more businesses will go bankrupt and the economy will get worse.