Tom Barkin, the president of the Richmond Federal Reserve, said that the recession the country entered in March ended sometime around June or July, though he noted this does not mean everything is all right, said MarketWatch.

While a "recession" has no technical definition, it is generally understood to be at least two consecutive quarters of economic decline as measured by GDP. While the economy sank by 31.7 percent in the second quarter, economists expect growth by the end of the third quarter, which would, on paper at least, mean no more consecutive economic contractions, which would, by the general understanding, mean that the recession is over. MarketWatch noted that, traditionally, the National Bureau of Economic Research announces when a recession begins and ends, usually years after the fact.

But even if a recession is technically over, it does not mean that the economy has recovered—rather, it has stopped getting actively worse, at least for now. Imagine someone in a terrible car accident; the end of a recession is when the bleeding has stopped and the patient is stabilized. But the patient will still need plenty of time to recover, as well as follow-up surgeries and physical therapy, to get even remotely close to where they were before the accident.

For instance, while the economic pain from the Great Recession lasted for years into the 2010s, it technically ended in June 2009, with all else being lingering after-effects.