We can't just flip the switch on the coronavirus

What the post-lockdown world will look like:

Some types of businesses will likely be able to open before others, and only at partial capacity.

Stores may continue to only allow a certain number of customers through the door at once, or restaurants may be able to reopen but with far fewer tables available at once.

Some workplaces will likely bring employees back into the office only a few days a week and will stagger shifts to segregate groups of workers from each other, so that one new infection won’t get the whole company sick.

Large gatherings may need to stay on ice.

And there will be more waves of infection, even in areas that have passed their peaks.

“Everything doesn’t just go down to zero” once a city or region gets through its initial crush of cases, said Janet Baseman, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington.