IT’S ironic that when almost everybody’s assumed to be inside their houses strictly observing home quarantine even if they are not patients under investigation (PUIs) nor persons under monitoring (PUMs), news of our senator, Koko Pimentel, being tested positive with Covid-19 yet was still accompanying his wife to a hospital to deliver their first baby broke out.
First and foremost, when you suspect that you have been in contact with a Covid-19 positive person, then that makes you a PUM and therefore must isolate yourself in your private room. But this was not followed by our senator who, according to different news sources and social media posts, in fact has been to a shopping store, particularly on March 16.
Based on CNN interview with him last March 25, Pimentel said he did not know he was already positive of the disease since his test result only arrived on March 24, four days after he got himself tested.
But even if he did not know he was positive for the virus, he was already a PUM, who should never leave the confines of his room or at least his house.
Bus his is also a different story.
There are many others who we may never know who are already a PUM and know that they fall under that category but still strutted around as if it is their sole right, under a democratic country, to go wherever they want to.
Prior to being a PUM, theirs may have different stories to tell such as they came from Manila where overseas employment agencies abound to seek employment opportunities abroad; or came from Manila due to an office-required activities; or their family members have just arrived from Manila making the other members of the family PUMs as well, and so on and so forth.
If one is in contact with a PUM, he is automatically considered a PUM, making a domino effect.
This is the essence of home quarantine: to stop the number of PUMs, who may turn out to be Covid-19 positive, from increasing, thus, stopping the spreading of the virus.
Under the PUM category are those people coming from an area where Covid-19 cases such as Metro Manila have been identified and those who are also in contact with identified PUMs or PUIs. This guideline has already been broadcast and made known to the public and everybody is assumed to have already known about this.
But there’s a big but in this narrative.
Some who already knew that they have in contact with a PUM or PUI or came from Covid-19-affected areas still act as if they are “innocent” and still go around places, probably for fear of being discriminated or worse, plain hubris.
And these kind of people contribute much to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the Philippines and not just the lack of masks and sanitizers.
This is the kind of people who should be reminded: Your right ends when the right of others begins.
While it is your right to live according to your own will, it is also our right to live a Covid-19-free life, so if you know you are a PUM, go to your room and isolate yourself. This is your responsibility not just for your family or loved ones but more so to your country.
Spread love, not disease.