Restaurants can have higher capacity starting Friday as the county’s risk level for the coronavirus improves.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, there was no coordinated federal approach on how to handle myriad elements of the crisis. It was left to governors, in conjunction with state legislatures, to determine what to shut down and when.

Of course, many people bristled against state government-imposed restrictions and shutdowns. These actions — ignoring and outright resisting simple safety announcements — went dangerously far beyond rejecting them just because Gov. Kate Brown and Gov. Jay Inslee are Democrats.

Some people are still openly flouting the simple idea of wearing a mask that properly covers the face in public; others have attended weddings, religious gatherings and large family events whose numbers have been way higher than health experts allow.

The consequences have been fatal. The total number of deaths in one day hit a record high two weeks after Thanksgiving, a statistic that was grimly accurate in its predictability, and sadly likely to be repeated because of unwise Christmas travel.

There can hardly be anyone who would question that absurd and widespread unwillingness to be a team player in our states’ survival hurt us, and very likely has prolonged the suffering.

Beyond that, those pressuring for a quick return to “normalcy” include many who may be too rigidly invested in ways of the past.

We are optimistic about the resilience of the North Coast’s residents. Over the past five decades, our lives have changed significantly for other reasons. Fishing and logging declined, and only operators who were the smartest — or luckiest — survived and are still in those businesses.

Tourism has always been a staple because of our lovely sandy beaches in Seaside and Long Beach, Washington; Cannon Beach has carved out a niche promoting the visual arts and that has spread to Astoria. And tourism based on our storied history and our maritime heritage blossomed with huge financial investments following the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial amid the realization that we had something pretty remarkable right here.

So we have a track record of rolling with the punches. When the canneries closed, we adapted. When the spotted owl and related controversies restricted logging and reduced log exports, we coped and came out in good shape. Recessions have come and gone. We are still here.

And so it will be with the virus. We must cope, then adapt.

2021 will signal the beginning of that process, but assuredly not the end. Vaccines have been developed and hopefully will become widely available. Once that happens, we might be able to get back to our lives without fear.

The new normalcy will likely be different from the world we left — or put on hold — in March.

At the very least, the pandemic has caused two major paradigm shifts in thinking about the modern workplace.

The first is the nature of “place” itself, although perhaps that is not a significant change for the greater Astoria area. Since the internet age dawned, The Astorian has chronicled the way the waterfront scenery of our region has been an attractive destination for professionals whose singular skills, combined with robust Wi-Fi connections, mean they can live anywhere. This concept has been “discovered” around the world.

In a similar vein, during the pandemic we have realized that for many people whose work is largely done at a computer or phone, the “workplace” can be their kitchen table. They do not need to travel and be physically present in an office environment. Call centers discovered this years ago, and thousands of people all over the world already clock in remotely from their homes thanks to dedicated phone lines installed to run parallel to their personal phones. This has been extended during the pandemic in unexpected ways.

Of course, there are drawbacks. When people work from home it means professional isolation with potentially much less personal contact with colleagues. This results in an inability to share ideas in person in an atmosphere that stimulates creativity and productivity.

And employees “missing” from the physical workplace have another impact. All managers lament that so many people working from home means fewer front-line people actually at the office to greet and serve people who arrive at workplaces expecting to meet a live human and receive in-person customer service.

Beyond that, though, has been the additional realization that this country is surviving on the backs of its generally unappreciated service workers, who are some of the lowest paid in today’s economy.

It is almost impossible to list them all without leaving someone out.

Health workers are up on a pedestal right now — as they should be. Those who dedicate their lives to the caring arts must have significant science education plus the people skills to treat patients with kindness as individuals. It is certainly a common viewpoint that doctors are well rewarded. But nurses and certified nursing assistants play an even more significant role with much more patient contact and receive significantly lower paychecks.

Who else has saved our communities during this pandemic? Grocery store checkers and store stockers, delivery people, long-distance truck drivers and others have all proved their worth. And farmers, crop pickers, packers and shippers have worked unabated to keep us fed.

Before we give in to that perfectly natural desire to “get back to normal,” we might want to take a long, hard look at exactly what “old normal” was — or, more properly, what “a new normal” could look like.

Most businesses operate with a balancing act between customer service and operational efficiency.

And most people in the service industry, and all except those at the top of the health field, are not adequately rewarded.

In the rush to “get back to normal,” perhaps we would be wise to embrace that age-old concept that a crisis also signals an opportunity. An opportunity to introduce some positive change is here.