THIS is something for the record.
The City of General Santos has locked down its Sangguniang Panlungsod building so this could be disinfected. Imagine three of its councilors were found positive with the CoronaVirus! This time it looks the transmission of the feared disease is more prevalent in that area than it was once in Davao City. And the disease seems to have made better impact choices for infection. Imagine, three councilors almost at the same time!
And it forces the local law making body to temporarily halt its legislative activities while waiting for the Chamber to finally be rid of the virus. What a tragedy!
We can only hope that the councilors’ infections will not evolve into serious ones and that they’ll get well soon and have not also infected others whom they have got in contact with inside or outside of the Sangguniang Panlungsod building.
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The National Capital Region (NCR) and some of its neighboring provinces are now converted into what the government calls as NCR plus Bubble. This is one terminology that we first heard when our basketball crazy sports officials were contemplating to start off the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) season which has been interrupted by the current pandemic.
The NCR plus Bubble is used to define the areas of coverage of the new and much stricter effort of the government to stem down the present surge in CoViD 19 infections especially in the NCR and nearby areas.
The scheme was started last Monday and from the number of people caught violating the new restrictions it appears that many of the residents of those areas included in the so-called bubble are not willing to sacrifice the freedom that they used to enjoy even if such curtailment is for the good of the majority.
Many still want to cross borders. Some even carry with them children or senior citizens who at the present situation of the country have been strictly ordered to just stay home. And most of the travelers apprehended were simply out to do picnics, or were claiming they would visit relatives. All of these reasons are again strongly discouraged at this point in time.
In the middle of all these, we still claim that the government is not doing enough to deter the pace of the infection.
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In Davao City we seem to be enjoying the thought that over the past many days, new cases of CoViD infections have been down to the lowest. In fact we cannot even find the name of our city in the list of areas where infections are surging high these days. Most, if not all, are from the Metro Manila area.
But we believe however, that this respite in Davao City should not be a reason for complacency. Yes, we have noted that there is apparent relaxation by the authorities in the guard against the virus transmission. Travel within Davao City appears to be without any impediment. Even those travels to other areas in the Davao region are already relaxed.
Inside the vast area of Davao City, what used to be quarantine checkpoints are now simply makeshift tents minus the front liners. Without anyone checking temperatures or ensuring that tires of passing vehicles pass on top of disinfectant chemicals spread on a portion of the road, travelers get to enter every barangay without getting checked of the possibility that they are carrying the virus.
If at all, there are people inside what used to be quarantine checkpoints they simply stare at the passersby as if they are looking at a passing sailboat.
And as to residents of Davao City going to other places in the region like Tagum City in the north, Davao Oriental in the region’s eastern side and in Digos City, Davao del Sur, many travelers are claiming that they are not anymore inconvenienced by the checks conducted by checkpoint personnel. They say it appears that what are being done at the checkpoint areas are more for security reason against terrorists and other criminals than for safety against the virus.
We do not want to believe these claims but from the accounts of some friends and relatives who are doing travels within the city and outside of it, we cannot help but be convinced about the truth of the assertions.
We also believe that the suspension of the use of the Food and Medicine Pass and instead substituting the same with the QR Code is still premature. The FM Pass will surely regulate the number of people travelling daily on the road or entering malls, public markets and groceries. In other words with the FM Pass still in effect there will be less opportunity for people to converge. Therefore, there will surely be less infections by the virus.
We hope this can give our medical authorities tasked with overseeing the fight against the virus in Davao City some flicker of light.
