TO MINIMIZE the impact of Covid-19, our government strongly imposes that we have to observe house quarantine. Quarantine is a period of isolation imposed to lessen the risk of spreading this infectious or contagious Covid-19.
We call this as “stay at home for good” or “voluntary house arrest”. Naughty husbands have a term for this... “detention for a happy wife”. For the mahjong players this is unsocial intervention because they cannot enjoy this table concert if they observe social distancing. For young people this is simply boring.
House quarantine doesn’t mean stagnation or work stoppage. You have cabinets, kitchen sink and comfort rooms to clean very well. Your garment aparador may need a new choreography. You may have time to remove the ticks in your dog’s skin. Your backyard and front yard may need a better landscaping.
You can have a better morning physical exercise with your family or take turn in preparing a hearty breakfast. Your grandchildren may now have storytellers since they have no classes. Your wife may have a longer time in bed with you if you opt not to observe proper bed distancing.
To strengthen your immune system against Covid-19, prepare chicken tinola with green papaya, pepper leaves and lemon grass. If you don’t have alcohol for hand wash, you can have a concoction by boiling together the leaves of cabugao, alibhon, bugnay, guava and mango. This is practical if you live in the farm. For your “serbe-tubi”, you can have boiled “malunggay” leaves or lemon grass.
You can have “laswa” using alogbate and talong fresh from your garden. Steamed okra and sliced tomatoes with a pinch of salt is palatable for lunch. Lemon and calamansi juice would match boiled camote and banana for snacks. Before going to bed, drink lukewarm water with sliced garlic or ginger tea. Gargle with warm water with a pinch of salt and say goodnight to your wife and children. Don’t forget to thank God that you are still alive.
This face of life is good if you have money and food to last for two or three months...or at least you have a better pension from SSS or GSIS...or you have other people running business for you. This may not hold true for our brothers and sisters who are in the level of “hand-to-mouth existence.”
Why are they in the middle of the crowd wrestling for money as vendors, trisikad drivers, cart pushers, street food sellers, and beggars? In their area of work, social distancing is not strictly observed. Probably they also know house quarantine and social distancing but for them it is better to die of COVID-19 than let their family die of hunger. Our task forces should find good reasons to effectively convince them by providing better economic alternatives.
We are congratulating barangay officials who have already identified the “poorest of the poor” and have already started to deliver the “economic package assistance”. There are stories circulated around that some barangay officials have already hibernated. Hibernation is worse than quarantine.
This could be an “action time” for our elected officials to move and to move faster to reach out to their constituency who have no work, those who lose their job, those who have nothing to eat, and those who are desperate to see that some of their local officials are not moving. The organization of task forces and frequent press conferences are good and should be coupled with fast action.
Conscientious owners and managers who temporarily closed shops sent “thank you-goodbye” message to their employees by giving them 25 kilos of rice and other take home goods. Some companies have advanced the 13th and 14th month bonuses. LGUs can do more because they have calamity funds and savings. All these blessings can be beneficial for two to three months. We hope and pray that COVID-19 will spiral down by that time. We don’t want to think of the worst scenario to come.
Testing kits from other countries have arrived and they are now distributed for immediate use in Metro Manila and the provinces. Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin of the Department of Foreign Affairs is willing to share his fund for the contingency program of other government offices that need more resources. The battle against the invisible enemy has just started. We can only win if we unite, conquer our fears and do what is good.
Let us quarantine our pride and greed if we want to survive. Survival is a matter of choice, not a matter of luck. We can only survive if we have the will and trust in God. If God is with us no one can defeat us.