The SARS-COV-2 pandemic has placed the entire planet under a global health threat, but it has also provided a golden opportunity for us to make the digital transition. With the successive confinements and restrictions on circulation and communication to which we were subjected, we had to look for other models of relationships, work, and learning. In a few months, the Portuguese went from an essentially playful and informative use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to an intensive work, academic, and communicational use.
TopFrom The Sars-Cov-2 Pandemic To The Imperative Of Digital Communication
The 21st century saw its first quarter marked by the occurrence of a viral pandemic of yet unknown global dimensions and impacts. The SAR-COV-2 pandemic and the different strains that were developing in different parts of the globe forced incredibly significant changes in habits in different societies. From one moment to the next, with the objective of containing the pandemic, the different States imposed on their populations several periods of confinement, to contain the spread of the virus.
In different countries of the world, but particularly on the European and American continents, different countries have declared States of Emergency, confining their populations for several weeks to months, depending on the countries urgence and political choices.
In the Portuguese case, we had two major periods of national confinement, one in 2020 and another in 2021, as the number of infected was already abysmal and the number of hospitalized in wards and intensive care units, as never seen in the Portuguese democratic period, placed a gigantic pressure on the National Health Service first and on the national health system afterwards. Health units of all types had never been faced with such pressure, making some weaknesses visible, as all existing health professionals were not sufficient to respond to the disaster.
Even so, services were quite quickly reorganized, professionals were redistributed, volunteers were summoned, field wards were set up, massive testing centers were created across the country, an effective vaccination system was implemented. In a few months it will guarantee the vaccination of almost the entire population. We were spectators and actors of a true national movement to combat epidemics, unparalleled in our recent history.
Just as the health sector adapted in a short time, the other sectors of Portuguese society also adapted very quickly. From the economic and financial sector to the educational sector, to the social sector, to the transport sector, one by one, all sectors of Portuguese society have adapted to a new reality that imposed a general confinement of the population. Almost overnight, Portugal went from an eminently analogue country to a mostly digital country. Refers Mendes Ribeiro, J. (2019: 63, 64) “Evolving an organization based on an “analog” culture to a digital culture is risky and demanding. One can imagine that changing an entire healthcare system to a new digital design will be a very demanding planning and implementation challenge, requiring a complex strategy, exposed to many simultaneous fronts and involving many people over several years”.
In weeks, a digital transition was rehearsed and developed that under normal conditions would take years to implement. In every house, the Portuguese subjected to confinement, teleworking, distance learning, discovered a new world of opportunities and learning that already existed, but as they were not timely relevant, they were almost unused. It was a time of adaptation with some initial turmoil, but in a short time – although some social inequalities in access to information and communication technologies persist –, most of the population adhered with commitment. Regarding the use of ICT, in a few months it was possible to take a technological leap of one or two decades. It was an admirable transition, despite some shortcomings revealed by reality itself.