WHILE we are doing away with the hangover brought about by the Yuletide season, we are now faced with the rising number of Covid-19 cases and a new variant to consider. There are a lot of holidays that we enjoyed for the past month. These likewise made us busy to spend time with family in our homes or in vacation destinations.
With the time spent on many Yuletide activities, we seemed to have slightly set aside the still prevailing pandemic while focusing on the season. Many doctors and medical personnel went on vacation too. Government offices tasked with the Covid-19 monitoring also enjoyed the holidays, which they also well deserve.
The Omicron kind is said to be more infectious, fortunately, it is also said that it is less deadly. Medical experts view the Omicron however as a variant that we do not want to be infected despite their observations that those who get infected have more chances of survival.
Virus testing, contact-tracing and other monitoring activities seemed to have been put to a halt while people enjoyed the season. This might be the reason that the number of infected were not properly monitored nor traced and this is the most probable reason too why the surge now on the numbers.
Another cogent reason for the rise in the number of Covid-19 positive individuals is the less focus on social distancing as people enjoyed the gatherings of family members, relatives and friends during the holidays. We cannot deny this fact with the number of reunions and other Christmas activities and the relaxed mode of enforcing government-imposed protocols.
Further, we may think that the figures provided by the government were on the low number of “positives” so it can somehow ease the restrictions it imposes. With the slightly relaxed government restrictions, people can do many activities that can somehow generate income for businesses.
One of the dire aspirations of the government today is how to help our moribund economy bounce back. While the pandemic is still extant, the need to sustain and improve the economy is also present, thus the need for various economic activities.
As we enjoyed the holidays to rest and relax a little bit, the virus never stopped during the holidays. There was no surge during December simply because of the lax monitoring of cases. There was a surge in January because it is already past the holiday season.
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With the government and some private establishments and the transport industry requiring vaccination cards prior to entry in their offices or engagements, there is this surge too on the number of persons who are now much willing to be vaccinated.
For several months now, there has been continuous vaccination that is being undertaken by the government. While a great number of the population was already inoculated, there are a lot of Filipinos who remain to be vaccinated. With the restrictions and the requirement on being vaccinated, many are all agog now to be jabbed.
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