4 April 2020 Journal Entry
How are you? Manila is on its third week of the COVID-19 lockdown. As of this writing, there are a million confirmed cases and almost 60,000 deaths globally per the WHO. The Philippines’ cases number 3,018, dramatically up from the 6 cases reported on March 6, less than a month ago. Singapore, which was one of the early countries to report a case after China, has been managing well, controlling the spread of the virus through mass testing, isolating the confirmed cases and seriously doing contact-tracing since January, but yesterday, it acknowledged that its COVID positive cases are increasing in number via local transmission; its Prime Minister addressed the nation to convey its plan to roll out their version of a lockdown – full home-based learning, and only establishments providing essential services will be allowed to continue to operate next week. Many countries have caved into the lockdown trend to contain the spread of the virus.
The coronavirus originated in China in late 2019 and has spread globally in the first 3 months of the new year. Now, we see that other countries have surpassed China’s number of positive cases with the US reporting triple the number of positive cases than that of China at 240,000 plus versus 82,000 plus. Italy and Spain have also exceeded China’s number with each having over 100,000 cases. China’s strong hold of its people has spelled the difference with the containment of the virus. Assuming these countries all have resources at their disposal, China has leveraged its communist party-led state to effectively control its people’s movements thereby effectively containing the spread of the virus. Compare that with what’s happening in the US where you have a president first saying that the threat of the coronavirus to the US was a hoax and that it would soon go away, resulting in federal states stepping up efforts to contain the virus without a clear national directive. Just when the confirmed cases were starting to spiral in number last month, many US citizens went about as they pleased, emptied grocery shelves, and either stayed home or continued with their routines.
Each one of us needs to take measures to control the COVID-19 spread. Experts say that the COVID-19 impact is nothing they’ve seen in this lifetime. IMF stated that the world has entered into an economic recession. Until a vaccine is developed, tested, and distributed, we face a grim year full of uncertainties. Curtailing workers’ movement leaves little that can be achieved. Production and manufacturing in all sectors, even food/agriculture, have been greatly scaled down with some grounded to a halt for the time being.
Hotels are empty. Cruise ships, except those still at sea with no ports accepting them, will remain anchored. There’s no telling when people would start traveling again. Meantime, airports will remain practically empty. The skies will remain blue and quiet, and the roads less noisy. For the first time in urban areas, we get to open our windows to let the sun and some fresh air in. We can’t for now fully enjoy the sunsets where they are most beautiful to look at.
Amusement parks, movie theaters, concert halls, museums, galleries, and libraries will have to maintain their upkeep so they’re kept oiled and dusted, ready to open again when lockdowns are lifted. Our favorite hangout, the malls, are off limits save for their grocery shops. We eat in, we share more meals with family, more time to share stories and enjoy light banters with the people we care the most (if we are lucky that we are locked in with them), and that's a great thing. It's not all bad after all.
Summer break in the Philippines for most students has started early but offers not a lot of excitement as kids are bound to stay at home doing the same things over and over each day (enduring the heat of summer with hardly any reprieve to run free in the sun), missing their classmates and friends, and running out of creative ideas to spend time, thus, resorting to using their gadgets to keep them busy and entertained. What can parents do? Eventually, we relax our rules on gadget use and screen time, we get tired of reprimanding our children, and let them be to some extent. We each have our quiet times, coping, waiting until this is over.
Many mothers these days must be searching the Internet for recipes to cook to excite palates that have grown tired of sinigang, adobo, and menudo. Housemaids are itching to get their free days away from households they serve.
We all itch to go back to our old ways, to gain back our freedom to move, to plan our days without restrictions. But I, for one, don’t see that day happening soon. We are in this lockdown for another stretch of time. And when that day comes when the lockdown is lifted, we will be well advised to carefully come out of our homes, restart our routines fully aware that the virus remains and that we can easily contract it. Let’s be extra careful and take care of our health more than ever.
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