Normalcy draws ever closer

The big dates loom like promises, tantalizing holidays which we have no experience celebrating.

May 17 will mark the end of a midnight curfew on outdoor dining on Long Island and around the state, and a return of 24-hour subway service in New York City, says Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

On May 19, indoor social gathering limits increase to 250, a boon for Long Island weddings, among other jumps in crowd limits that could enable graduations and more.

And July 4 is the target date when at least 70% of adult Americans should have a vaccine shot, President Joe Biden vowed Tuesday — millions of shots that should have America looking almost normal again.

What an idea.

We always knew it was unlikely that there would be a singular "V-C" day at which point COVID-19 would be defeated. More people are getting vaccinated, and the virus has been receding here. But the process has been gradual, with New Yorkers experiencing a rolling return. No immediate crush of kisses and confetti and celebratory photographs in Times Square caught for history.

Instead, we have little victories, perhaps a night out at a restaurant to mark two weeks after our final vaccine shot, or private family reunions once families don’t worry about endangering their own. Life is creeping back with spring weather and subsiding infection numbers: see the traffic and more crowded restaurants. Vaccines are eminently available and the shots have been wildly successful in safeguarding most people and stopping spread. Vaccinated people can take their masks off outside in most uncrowded circumstances and are rightly doing so. So many people are looking around wondering, remembering — is this how it used to be?

But along with the little victories and the big dates of life resuming comes caution. The virus is raging in India and other parts of the world, wreaking havoc and threatening to brew variants here. New York still has millions of people who are not vaccinated, either because they are waiting on first or second shots or they are hesitating to bare their arms. Health care workers are still tending to COVID-19 victims. And it’s likely that the virus will continue to circulate among us at lower levels, potentially requiring booster shots and caution for some vulnerable populations.

Small wonder that so many feel so tentative getting back to usual. There will surely be a long strange period of this in-between normality, with lots of potential for clashes between those who are ready for another Roaring Twenties and those who still want to keep their masks on or handy, vaccine or no vaccine.

Let’s all try to have patience with each other as we navigate this moment, one for the history books even if those history books won’t list a boldface date when it all changed.

And as the milestone moments approach and compound, from nightlife to overwhelming-majority vaccination, let’s not forget to stop and appreciate that better times are ahead.

— The editorial board