We want to jump forward, and of course we do, because this is no way to live. Patio season is coming. The flowers are peeking out. In Canada spring is liberation, and social distancing — the cessation of business, the absence of human contact, the sudden strange closure of so many of our lives — this is no kind of freedom.

But we can’t. Not yet.

“Getting out of this epidemic will be like coming down a mountain in the dark,” said Canada’s deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo, in French, in another daily COVID-19 briefing.

“We should not rush, or abandon our security measures. If we do, the fall will be brutal and terrible. We can’t forget that this is a new disease, so we don’t know everything yet, which means the terrain will be dangerous, and uncertain. We have to go slowly, and make sure before we take each step on the descent.”

Evocative. And yes, it just stinks. It is natural to want to escape this. Not everyone has access to the outdoors. If you live in a two-bedroom with two young kids, or something similar, this is probably agony. If you have been declared an essential service and are working a minimum-wage job that requires you to take the TTC, life is dangerous. If you are alone in a one-bedroom without windows, life is … what? A lot of Toronto lives in small apartments.

And even if you are afforded the extreme privilege to stay home comfortably while the federal government continues to expand eligibility for monetary support, we all want life back.

It does not help that there is a mallet-like approach to outdoor space in places like Toronto and Ottawa. Toronto refuses to consider closing lanes of traffic to effectively extend sidewalks and bike lanes, even as traffic has dwindled and other cities have attempted it. The worry seems to be that people will take the opportunity to flood the streets. Oh, and some of our feral drivers are apparently still prowling the city.

And in Ottawa, the town known for rolling up the sidewalks, Ottawa’s associate medical officer of health, Dr. Brent Moloughney, said people should not have a beer on the driveway with a neighbour, or talk to a neighbour over a fence, even if they technically observe physical distancing guidelines. The problem, he said, is a couple beers can turn into a party on the driveway, or in the parking lot, or in the backyard. Even, apparently, in Ottawa.

Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, walked those ideas back on Wednesday, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Cheers to her.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization issued a list of conditions to open up a society. So did California. So did the Star. Forget the Trumpist protests in America. That’s not us.

But the questions have arrived. When will this be over? What is the plan? We know normalcy will not return until a vaccine arrives in 12-18 months. Success stories like Hong Kong and Singapore have implemented heavy testing, contact tracing, isolation and electronic surveillance. Their second waves have, so far, been manageable.

There are two big challenges. One is how to start reopening societies, which as chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam put it, requires “epidemic control of this initial wave … we’re not close to that.” Many people won’t have COVID-19 immunity; we must be sure the hospital system can handle any crush; we have to worry about importing the virus from elsewhere.

“Whatever we get back to is not going to be the same as before the actual pandemic,” said Dr. Tam. “As for what that new normal might look like, we have to tread cautiously in order to get there.”

“It seems like over the past days people are talking about we’ll reopen this, we’ll do this, we’ll reopen that,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a welcome unvarnished moment. “It’s not happening yet. If we reopen too soon, everything we’re doing now might be for nothing. We are making sacrifices, we’re there for each other. We need to hold on, still.”

It would be nice to have conditions for reopening, from the provinces above all. But we should be able to wait, because we are not close yet.

Which leaves the second part. At some point Canadian public health officials will have to trust Canadians more, and Canadians will have to show they are worthy of the trust. No, not everyone listened before. People want to be outside.

But if this is a sort of prison we’ll need yard time, and not everyone has a yard. It’s all well and good to watch videos of Italian mayors howling into cameras that they’ll send the police with flamethrowers if you attempt a graduation party. But our city leaders will need to see the city differently.

“If you see the parks are really full, you can say we have to shut it down, or you can say, it shows that people need access to public space,” said former Toronto chief planner and mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat. “So you don’t close the parks, you open the streets. We need to think about how to create more space for people.”

Instead of one-way sidewalks, create wider sidewalks, so people can line up outside shops when they eventually open. Make people take turns on outside visits, if you must. But give people a chance, and enforce without the mallet.

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We’ll need better testing, of course. And we are still talking about rescuing long-term-care homes. Some hospitals think the peak happens this week. Hospitals are already running low on certain drugs, and on other ICU equipment, and personal protective equipment still needs to be rationed.

Canada is not free and clear yet. We’re not close. Flattening the curve extends it for a longer time. That’s the point.

But eventually we will need to find a way to live through this both in terms of saving lives, and in ways beyond mere survival. We can’t jump forward. But maybe we can walk or run or bike there, safely together and apart, day by pandemic day.

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