The itch to transition out of isolation and back into something that resembles normal life is growing in Canada, as countries around the world began to open their doors for the first time since COVID-19 lockdowns were put in place.

But how will you handle everyday situations when restrictions are loosened?

We don’t know quite how that will unfold, although the World Health Organization has warned it will be a slow process. So has Toronto Public Health.

“When the time comes, we will need to ensure that we can slowly and delicately ease up on measures for our broader community, while keeping the residents of our long-term-care homes and other vulnerable residents in our city safe,” says Dr. Michael Finkelstein, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health and director of communicable disease control.

Physical distancing — six feet, or two metres — and some of the other measures currently in place will continue. It will be a new normal, rather than back to normal.

“We may need to get creative,” says Ashleigh Tuite, an infectious disease epidemiologist, math modeller and assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

As we prepare for society to reopen, however slowly, here’s a test of some best practices in high-traffic areas — with tips from Tuite on how to navigate them.

At the movie theatre

People will need to be cognizant of physical space everywhere they go, and movie theatres are no exception.

“You’re not going to have sold-out shows anymore,” Tuite says. “You’re going to need to have a lot of space.”

Ideally, she says, moviegoers would go alone, at least at first, and theatres could leave two or three seats empty between patrons. But it starts to get more complicated if groups are allowed.

“That’s going to really impact what seating at a theatre looks like, because you might have a row of five people and then you need to have this large buffer around them. It’s going to introduce complicated planning and arrangement … Is it going to be someone’s job to basically figure out the seating arrangement for each show dependant on how many people there are and how big their groups are?”

Tuite suggests a limit of two groups per row, entering and exiting on opposite sides. Squeezing past strangers to get to your seat won’t be an option, and it gets trickier: For example, while a seat at the back might be farther from where others are sitting, you’d have to pass more people to get to it.

At the office

It’s the shared amenities — the lunch room, the bathrooms, other high-traffic areas — that Tuite believes will pose the largest challenge, as those who don’t normally work from home start to return to their regular locations.

“There will be certain places where you don’t want people sitting because you’re going to have a lot of people passing by them,” she says.

Tuite suspects offices might adopt decals — similar to those now used by grocery stores — that lay out pathways with social distancing marks and block off some areas.

“If you have an open office and you have people working closely together, you’re going to not want to have all of those desks occupied at one time. So that means you either have people cycling through or working as remotely as they can, or have fewer people and have them on a shift or something like that. In this rendering, the two face-to-face cubicles, I don’t think that those are going to fly.”

Tuite adds that all desks should be spaced to ensure proper social distancing. Otherwise, employees should continue to work remotely until it’s safer.

“The boardroom’s going to be interesting as well … In the boardroom you potentially block out some of the (seats), but you have people all entering through one door, leaving through one door. It’s … more about everyone’s touching that door handle, and thinking about hand hygiene, which is another really important component. It becomes tricky.”

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In the park

In theory, social distancing should be easy in a park, assuming you can walk off paths and there’s green space.

But playground equipment, basketball courts, baseball diamonds or any other areas that encourage large gatherings make it harder.

“I’m thinking of Trinity Bellwoods in the summer, for example. If you go there, it’s just full of people and everybody has their picnic blankets out, and you can’t really see the grass because it’s just full of people,” Tuite says. “The issue is, how do you allow people to be outside and get fresh air while also ensuring that people are able to maintain that distance?”

She suggest parks may continue to be policed after they fully reopen, including time limits and forcing people to move if they’re too close together. Avoiding park benches and stepping aside when passing others on narrow walkways would also continue: “Everything is more complicated.”

On the subway

“Transit probably, just given how it’s set up, is the trickiest one,” says Tuite, adding it will be up to the TTC to regulate subway ridership at any given time and find a way to show the distance between seats.

It will be up to riders to avoid any overcrowded subway cars, and to be aware of the paths they take: through the doors, down the aisles.

“I can’t imagine that you always can (maintain two metres of distance on the subway),” she says. “Then it’s a question of maybe maintaining distance isn’t an option, but you think about minimizing contact, touching surfaces, and when you’re seated make sure you’re maintaining as much distance as you can.”

Finding other ways to get where you’re going, of course, would also help.

“This is an example of why alternate modes of transportation are becoming increasingly important,” she says. “If you can walk, walk. If you can take a bike, cycling hopefully will be supported in terms of infrastructure, because I think that’s a really good way to get around.”

At the coffee shop

Coffee shops, like restaurants, can learn from essential businesses such as grocery stores and pharmacies when it comes to managing crowd control, Tuite says. If people are getting food and drinks to go, having them line up outside and enter only after others exit would limit the risk, including for those who are dining in.

Inside the shop, businesses could operate with fewer seats to encourage distancing, but there’s more to consider.

“You’re going to have to think about those high-traffic areas. So in addition to sitting somewhere where you’re maintaining your distance from others, you’re also going to have to think about where people who are picking up their food or drinks are waiting, and how do you make sure that those pathways are clear so people who are sitting are distancing.”

In a rendering, Tuite says an empty two-seat table in the corner could be the safest to parachute into, but a patron could face issues getting there. An open four-seater closer to the door is another option, but also closer to others.