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FROM STAFF REPORTS / Editorial 

As a staff, we wake up every day worried that it could be our last with a job we’ve worked so hard for. Our newspaper is being hit hard by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus just as every business across the country is due to ad revenue being down.

And with businesses closed for the foreseeable future and no local events happening again for quite some time, we wonder, as many of you have, how much longer we will have jobs doing what we love.

It’s a terrifying and sickening thought that haunts us all daily.

That said, businesses being closed or limiting their contact with others is the right call for the time being.

In the first two weeks of Gov. Kay Ive’ys stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a decrease in the number of confirmed cases, specifically in the second week.

That means we were seeing signs of it working.

But as soon as that happened, we heard the talk of reopening Alabama’s economy.

While we can safely do that sooner rather than later, we still need more time.

With this virus being so contagious, it’s better to be cautious rather than hasty.

We all want a sense of normality back, but doing so too quickly can be just as devastating as the onset of the virus, which started close to a month-and-a-half ago on March 13.

While we don’t need to live in fear and we don’t need to be told how to live our lives, there is also a difference between fear and being smart.

Right now, we are at an interesting crossroads as we hit summer.

Not only will tourism money take a hit this summer, but we start to take a look into the fall and what might happen when a new school year starts and things like football start to come into the conversation.

The best thing we can do is take our time and not rush back.

Not because we don’t need it, but because we can’t handle a relapse.

If we go through this all over again, jobs will become even more scarce and the economy will take even more of a hit.

Just think of the economic hit the country will take with no sports or school this fall. The trickle-down effect will continue to impact us all.

Numbers across the majority of the state, and especially in Shelby County, have been going down as far as new confirmed cases go over the last two weeks.

If we give it a few more weeks, we could be in a really good spot, but we have to be able to be back in full swing this fall, so why take the chance on a relapse before then until we are absolutely positive?

If we can continue to take this seriously for the next few weeks, we can go back to the drawing board and take the next step, but otherwise, it’s going to be around a lot longer than we want.