MAKE no mistake about it, the Covid-19 pandemic has placed us in very dire straits and we are in it for the fight of our lives and the very survival of the human race. Only when we are truly able to comprehend the gravity and precarious situation that we are in do we even begin to understand that only through extreme and drastic measures will we as a people and nation survive this unrelenting crisis.
There will be no easy way about it and only by forging a unified stand and driven by a specific and singular purpose -- to end the pandemic and save people's lives -- do we stand a chance of having a future free of the disease.
Some countries have tried too early and too soon to re-open their communities both to social interaction and economic stimulus, with sadly dire and deadly consequences.
The Philippines is fortunate, if that is the term that must be used, for having a strain of the virus that is not as virulent and lethal such as those infecting other countries, but still, the number of those infected keeps on increasing steadily day by day while deaths have also occurred and those that have recovered from the disease are praised and honored for having endured and overcome the deadly embrace of Covid-19.
If we are to emerge victorious in all of this, then the government, as well as the people must ramp up their resolve in stamping out the pandemic before it can further spread and escalate to levels that would render all our efforts useless.
One proactive active measure that must be impressed on the people is the observance of discipline both in religious compliance with health and safety protocols such as wearing of masks when in public or outside of the home, regular washing of hands, use of disinfectants, social distancing, crowd avoidance, etc., and in following and obeying quarantine protocols to reduce and minimize the spread radius of the virus in the community.
The discipline of obeying rules and adhering to directives and advisories from the authorities is one of the most difficult aspects of this war against the pandemic. In the National Capital Region (NCR), the spike in the number of people infected with the virus cannot be attributed solely to the relaxing of restrictions to stimulate the economy but also, in part, to those who simply cannot or do not wish to obey even the most basic safety protocol of wearing a mask when they go out of their houses.
That is why just recently, President Rodrigo Duterte already declared that arrests should be made against those who would not comply with health and safety protocols being enforced in the community.
This is the problem when the enemy is invisible and unseen by the naked eye. For some people, they believe themselves to be impervious from the threat of being harmed by something they cannot see and believe that it is more important to be socially active than staying at home. This is what initially happened in the US, and their President seemed to think that the best way to defeat the virus is by ignoring it .
That was some months back, and now 3.9 million confirmed infected cases and more than 140 thousand deaths later, President Donald Trump finally realizes that wearing a mask will not lessen his stature as a leader and that admittedly that the pandemic raging in the US will get worse before it becomes better.
The Philippines pandemic is still manageable, just. But only if everybody, not just the government, will insist and demand that discipline will become the normal habit for everyone until we can finally get rid of the virus.