WHEN the pandemic hit the country in February of last year, no one would have thought that the total number of positive cases could reach a little more than seven hundred thousand after a year’s time.
Likewise since then going forward, we had gone through several levels of lockdown, shutdown, quarantine, or whatever it’s preferably called, while our nerves had remained steadily stuck at one level only, which is ‘on edge’.
While for some areas, the results may have been favorable, it had not been quite the same for others. As such, places like Cebu had to temporarily bear the brunt of stricter quarantine protocols due to an increase in their covid cases during the latter part of last year. Now, it seems to be the turn of the National Capital Region and its neighboring areas to have that unfavorable distinction.
Truth be told, official statistical reports coursed through the media, read the numbers by regions, and then add them all up in order to come up with a national tally. So, the national total score of positive cases, trumped up by NCR and its silingans, for example will appear more menacing, even in an archipelago with so and so number of islands.
Just asking, but doesn’t this discount the fact that the regions or Local Government Units (LGU) have their own tweak when enforcing quarantine rules, in spite of national guidelines? This plus infrastructure, could even be why some areas post lower numbers than the rest.
After a year, granting the availability of vaccines as a factor, the overall relaxed attitude by both government and the public towards quarantine protocol despite the arrival of new covid variants which are deadlier in a manner that they make contagion easier, make up for a worrying feel.
how are we holding up?
Who can forget that last year during the first months of quarantine, the practice of rationing whatever we may have luckily gotten via panic buying, had been the most logical and wiser move. Who knows, this reflex action to ration might have been handed-down memories from our elders who have experienced the hardships of the last world war. Also, nobody knew what was going to happen when covid 19 came knocking.
Then a year later, with the once difficult-to-find goods like toilet paper and rubbing alcohol, becoming more and more available, rationing one’s patience so that it could last, for anyone to survive on a day by day has become the new struggle.
Truly, a lot of lessons, particularly ones about human nature could be had in a year alone. One would think with our advancements, a more basic understanding of the world would already have been afforded us. We’re no wiser sadly.
In the country where some people spend the time to either squabble over choice of vaccines, insist on who goes first, or justify lockdown violations, the thing most easily forgotten are the sacrifices of medical frontliners, who daily fight the viral threat. We still see people going out despite COVID-19, and then we see the figure of positive cases spike up and down, and we ask why or blame others. Nothing else makes any sense anymore.
