THAT there is a surge in the number of new CoViD 19 infection cases in Davao City is a fact. But as to the reason why the surge suddenly came starting last May until this month after the city apparently went back to near normal towards the end of 2020, we have no idea. And it seems that the health and civic authorities do not have either.
Our take on the matter though is that we in the city seem wanting in discipline to the point that we have started quite clearly our complacency. Many of us get out of our residences without abandon; conduct get-together, hold elicit cock fights and other crowd gathering affairs. In other words almost all the protocols are ignored or half-complied by many residents.
On the other hand, it appears now that it is not only the people of the city who are wanting in discipline and religious compliance of mandated restraints. Even those charged in implementing the various health protocols are themselves lacking in the performance of their responsibilities. One example is the case of an individual who was swabbed test and found positive of the virus lately. The result was made known to the family of the victim four days after the swabbing. Well, the test was conducted on a Friday. Thus, it is understandable if the swab result will have to wait for two more days as Saturday and Sundays are no work days under ordinary times. We do not know whether this will apply in this time of the pandemic. The result was communicated to the victim and the immediate family on Tuesday or five days after the swab-testing.
Meanwhile, pending the result the patient was just staying home and had a hard time preventing some people especially members of the family to interact with the CoViD positive individual. The common expectation of course is that the victim would have been immediately fetched by the health authorities as she was manifesting almost all the symptoms of the virus infection. But even after the patient was confirmed by the swab result as having the virus she was allowed to remain in the house for another seven days before she was taken to a quarantine facility in Baguio district.
But barely three days inside the quarantine facility the patient was told she can go home. According to the victim, a nurse in the facility said she was already well. The quarantined patient was fetched by a barangay vehicle and brought back home. The other members of the household though are still waiting for the result of their swab test.
What is somewhat questionable in the release from the quarantine facility is that even if her stay at her house after the swab testing is to be considered as home quarantine, adding it to the three days of her stay at the Baguio facility would not total to the fourteen (14) days mandated in the protocol. And perhaps, even worst is that the victim was not swab-tested again prior to the release. In other words, a question could certainly arise whether the patient is already cleared of the virus in her body.
We are really at a loss as to what is really the nitty gritty of the protocol on the quarantine requirement. Is a quarantined CoViD victim supposed to complete the 14-day stay in the facility he or she is brought? Isn’t the patient supposed to be swab-tested again where upon finding him or her already negative of the virus it is only then that the release is allowed?
Somehow, we are tempted to believe that the number of new cases in Davao City is surging quite high to the point that facilities for quarantine have to be emptied of its occupants as soon as they show indications of wellness. And the releases are even made without being swab-tested again to confirm their being a non-carrier anymore.
For now we can only surmise that the practice is not yet known by the higher health and civic authorities. It would be a different case if they have some inkling that this is happening but are just tolerating the practice.
If this practice, whether known and tolerated by the higher authorities, or still out of their knowledge, we should not anymore be searching our minds for the answer of the question why the CoViD cases in Davao City are surging
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Something we find very assuming as far as those who adhere to this post on Facebook. According to this very assuming post, every time the nation’s government needs change, an Aquino dies. We do not know if the post’s author has enough basis of his/her assumption. But the post is clearly insinuating that an Aquino leadership is the only savior of the country from perdition.
This is something for the Filipinos to discern quite fairly. Agreeing to the idea is like believing that only they have the monopoly of righteousness. The victims of the Mamasapano massacre and the Hacienda Luisita carnage may be turning their skeleton over in their graves. Think again.
