WE can expect a rise in COVID-19 infections with the easing of restrictions in Metro Manila from Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) to General Community Quarantine (GCQ), because more people movement will now be allowed and a greater deal of the responsibility of keeping infections down will fall on the people themselves.
The two-week return to the stricter MECQ last August 4 had been granted by President Deterte after the nation’s doctors, nurses, and other hospital personnel had asked for a “time-out” from the rigors of their hospital work in the face of rising COVID-19 cases. We could not, however, stay long in that restrictive because people need to work and earn a livelihood. They cannot stay home forever.
In the words of Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementor of the National Task Force carrying out the restrictions ordered by the government, the prolonged strict lockdowns were not sustainable, as they impacted on the livelihood of the people. “The way to move forward is a granular implementation of the lockdowns,” he said.
In the coming days of the reinstated General Quarantine, we should be ready for some increase in the number of new cases, but Galvez called on local government units to take on a bigger role in making their constituents comply with the basic protocols of social distancing, face masks, and clean hands.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque added a bit of advice to people themselves: Be specially careful and watchful in hospitals and other healthcare areas, in wet markets, supermarkets, government and private workplaces, in public transportation and all other areas with increased economic activity.
With the easing of restrictions, there will now be more public transportation – more MRT, LRT, and PNR trains, more buses, taxis, UV Express units, and jeepneys. This is where masses of people usually gather, which is why, in addition to facemasks and social distancing, those using public transports are now required to wear face shields.
This is a problem we share with all nations of the world in this time of the pandemic – how to find the proper balance between restrictions to keep infections down and the gradual easing of those restrictions so that people can go on with their lives.
This latter concern is shared by business and industry and by government agencies concerned with economic development and progress, with market supplies and market prices, with exports and imports, with trade balances, with the Gross National Product at the end of the year.
In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the government has had to find the right balance between the interests of this sector and that of the health sector, the lives of COVID-19 victims and the heavy burden on the nation’s hospitals and healthcare workers.
The series of restrictions , the various levels of quarantines, were imposed to control and stop the virus. But now it is time to gradually lift the restrictions, so that the people can start going back to work and support themselves and hopefully resume the life they used to live, with the little enjoyments they used to share with family and friends, and the holidays they used to celebrate as a nation.
