Opt for personal vehicles, taxi: Health expert

Due to crowding, public health experts do not recommend taking public transportation. There is increased risk due to the number of people travelling and possibilities of crowding.

“With the city opening up, we don’t have just hotspots anymore. Therefore, there is a risk of cross-contamination across the zones. I recommend that people try to either take taxis or use their own vehicles,” said Dr Sivakumar, chief of medicine at Government Villupuram Medical College.

Experts also recommend wiping down seats before sitting down, maintaining social distance, and avoiding coming into contact with high-contact areas such are holding rails and seat handles.

“Let’s talk about the pandemic from a psychological perspective. People will not be able to accept the transitory stress reaction. People have been living their life in a certain way for so many years, so the first two months of the shutdown was rough. Now, as the city reopens again, there will be some sort of stress again in people. This response will vary between people,” said WHO-certified trainer and psychologist Dr K Janakiraman.

However, long-term change cannot take place without a shift in thought process, added Dr Janakiraman. “Even for things such as accidents, there is a cautious response in the brain immediately. If this response is absent, then there will be no changes to the outward behaviour. Safety at this time boils down to people acting responsibly, and that requires changes in their behavioural safety patterns,” he said.