BEGINNING May 1st, the whole of Cagayan de Oro City and Misamis Oriental will be placed under General Community Quarantine. According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, GCQ is THE NEW NORMAL. But what does it mean for us ordinary citizens?
Ever since the City Government declared community quarantine over a month ago, we have witnessed significant changes in our daily lives. Our movement outside our home have been restricted to bare minimum. Most businesses are closed and curfew hours are strictly implemented.
Wearing of face mask when outside has become mandatory as well as observance of physical distancing in public places and transportation.
And to top it all, Barangay Exit Pass (BEP) is now required to further limit the number of people outside their residences. Only one person per family is allowed to go out to do essential things such as going to markets to purchase produce items, visit doctors for regular check-ups and buying medicines.
Based on the initial guidelines released by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Covid-19, areas under GCQ may gradually restart opening some economic activities under sectors 1, 2 and 3. These are establishments offering essential goods and services such as malls, restaurants and transportation services. This step is a welcome respite for most of our workforce. This minor adjustments however still have limitations.
Restaurants can only offer take-out and delivery orders. Public transportation such as buses and jeepneys must observed physical distancing. Wearing of face mask is still mandatory. Non-essential travels are still discourage. This is the new normal.
As as Kagay-anon, I have few reservations as to the implementation of the GCQ in our city. How can the local government effectively implement measures revolving around GCQ? In a city where shopping malls outnumber natural parks, how can we contain our kababayans from converging into these shopping malls once their doors open once again? Pretty sure, a lot of Kagay-anons are excited to step inside the air conditioned walls of these malls after more than a month of being home isolated.
Observing physical distancing in public transportation will be another challenge for our officials to impose. During the height of Covid-19 pandemic and imposition of community quarantine within the city, I personally observed public utility jeepneys overflowing with passengers. Now that GCQ will be more relaxed, I can only wonder if physical distancing will even be considered.
With very limited time to put all things in motion, we can only hope that our local officials are up for more challenges in the days to come. Everyone knows that our health institution cannot afford a sudden spike of positive coronavirus cases. Our healthcare workers have sacrificed enough and they can only do so much.
In the end, our best defense as a community is to get our acts together. We may not be known as the most disciplined city in the entire country but we can change that now. The perfect time to change our ways is now. Until a vaccine is developed to protect us from this deadly disease, we have to learn to adapt to the new normal.