Caught up in COVID

Jay Aaron Roy puts on his mask and opens his store for its tenth anniversary. Since opening in 2014, Roy has spent nearly half of that time protecting his customers from COVID-19.

Roy, owner of Cape and Cowl Comics and Collectibles in Lower Sackville, says that his business would be in danger without masks.

He and his staff wear masks while working and ask customers to wear them upon entering the store.

“Many small business owners suffer severe losses if they are closed for even a day or two,” said Roy. “If one or two of us get sick, there is no business.”

Roy is not alone. The COVID-19 pandemic created drastic changes in many parts of our society, many of which remain today. Store hours are often reduced, masks are still occasionally mandated, and many workers continue to stay at home.

According to Statistics Canada, physical activity – recreation, exercise and active transportation – increased while screen usage decreased – and has stayed that way.

The end of the pandemic

Since January 2023, COVID-19-related deaths in Canada have been declining. The Government of Canada’s COVID-19 updates show that in the first two weeks of September 2024, 89 Canadians died of COVID.

Some 70,000 Canadians caught COVID-19 in 2024, with 2,000 deaths, while there were 2.3 million cases and nearly 20,000 deaths during the worst of the pandemic in 2022. Despite this, the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet been declared officially over.

Despite the gradual removal of most restrictions, not everyone has abandoned their mask.  According to a September 2024 study on the pandemic’s effect on social behaviour, less than 15 per cent of the population continues to wear face masks, as opposed to 64 per cent during the pandemic.

Even so, masking mandates have been reintroduced to Nova Scotia hospitals as respiratory illnesses increase. Many businesses that implemented plexiglass screens for their workers’ protection continue to use them to keep everyone healthy.

Roy is happy to keep enforcing masks in his store if it means protecting everyone from sickness.

“It’s just an intelligent thing to do,” he said. “In order to keep myself and my community alive, I continue to enforce masking.”

Even though some practices brought on by COVID-19 persist, not everyone is happy with recent developments.

David Roberts, the director of urban studies at the University of Toronto, is concerned that the federal government is no longer gathering as much data on COVID-19.

“We knew more about public health during the pandemic,” Roberts said. “Now we know less about public health than we did two years ago, which is shortsighted.”

The impact on schools

Children were especially affected by the pandemic, with long school closures creating new challenges.

“Their routines, learning, and ability to interact with others have changed drastically,” says Dr. Mary Ann Campbell, a University of New Brunswick psychology professor.

“Students of all ages missed a good opportunity to learn to be social by being locked down for so long.”

Being locked inside may have been a new experience for many students, but they adapted quite well. According to Montreal science professors studying university student behaviour in July 2022, 78.4 per cent of tested students complied with COVID-19 restrictions.

Still, Campbell says students of all ages living through the pandemic were deeply affected.

“Their generation can never imagine a world that can’t send them home for months.”

The first two years of COVID-19 saw schools worldwide close for an average of 20 weeks and partially closed for an additional 21 weeks. American science professors studying learning losses during the COVID-19 pandemic found that students suffered during this period of isolation.

Many pre-pandemic teens are now post-pandemic adults who lack the experience and social skills they need.

“It’s not just about the learning material,” says Corrigall-Brown, “but the social skills learned by meeting others in a personal space.”

Business affected by COVID-19

Businesses have seen many changes, from reduced hours, some of which remain, to safety precautions.

Halifax Transit still uses plexiglass shields introduced in spring 2020. Now the buses are getting new and improved protective barriers.

“There’s a concern about the violence and aggression on our buses,” says Sarah Brannen, public affairs adviser for the Halifax Regional Municipality.

“We have zero tolerance for this behaviour. These new shields are one of our tools to protect our drivers and passengers.”

According to a consumer behavior study released in June 2024, online shopping has become more popular than ever in the last four years. During the first year of COVID-19, Statistics Canada says, 21.6 per cent of Canadian businesses made sales online.

Many business owners, like Jay Aaron Roy, found themselves selling online during the early days of COVID-19, when most non-essential businesses were forced to close.

“Thanks to the government assistance grant program, I was able to set up my online store at the start of the pandemic,” says Roy. “With their support, I made it through the worst of the pandemic.”

That program, the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP), stopped accepting applications in October and is scheduled to wrap up by March 31, 2025.

Food delivery also saw a large uptake following the pandemic. In 2024, Canadian statistics show a 36 per cent increase in online food orders during the pandemic, with the food delivery app SkipTheDishes used by 55 per cent of these shoppers.

UNB’s Campbell says the pandemic created new habits of convenience, as people learned to enjoy the benefits of ordering online.

“It removes the inconvenience, the wait, the noise – and people got used to it.”

Working from home

Forcing large swaths of the country’s work force into remote work was an improbable concept before the pandemic but is now the norm for many workers. Corrigall-Brown of UBC says these workers have learned the comfort and convenience of working in their own homes. This has caused companies near and abroad to create new policies to support remote workers.

“Workers have experienced the joys of working from home, which has fundamentally shifted the economy forever,” said Corrigall-Brown.

Still, workers are returning to the office slowly but surely. According to Statistics Canada, about 20 per cent of workers continue to work from home, compared to 40 per cent during March 2020. Only seven per cent of Canadians worked from home in May 2016.

Corrigall-Brown says that while working remotely is fine, physical interaction will always produce better results.

“People need to be together, just for the sake of being together.”

David Roberts says that the pandemic reduced in-office workforces considerably for the foreseeable future.

“What we do with these reduced numbers will be a concern in Canadian city planning for a long time.”

COVID-19 affected everyone in some way, even those who were only locked inside their homes for a few months. UNB’s Campbell says many people found a new appreciation for being around others. But there is also a deep value in person-to-person social communication.

As Jay Aaron Roy locks up for the day, he considers returning to how his store operated four years ago. He is running a small operation in a volatile time. Should COVID-19 reappear, the challenge could be overwhelming.

With this in mind, Cape and Cowl will continue to ask its customers to wear a mask, valuing safety above all.

“I just don’t believe we are safe enough yet.”

About the author

Matthew Bambrick

Matthew Bambrick is a student journalist from Middle Sackville, Nova Scotia. He enjoys telling stories through radio and podcasting.