March 7, 2020 marks the day when the thing we all dreaded would happen, happened. President Duterte declared a state of national health emergency with three new cases of COVID-19 in the country, one of them definitely a case of local transmission. With this, all the “walls” of our false sense of security crumbled—the so-called exceptionally warm temperature that we had, the food we ate, how good we were at containment protocol—all of what we heard that we believed kept our number of local infections down with no local transmissions. Now we have to deal with the stark reality, just like everybody else in the world, that this can happen to us; to our loved ones, or maybe even to somebody we don’t know who handed us our change when we paid for our coffee at a coffee shop. Yes, now the danger is real and we have to be extra careful, and be more vigilant about this virus.
But then it makes me wonder how do we deal with this as a community and bring our numbers down, given the realities in our country, especially here in Metro Manila. Just look at us—15 million people all crammed like sardines in 619 square kilometers of land space. Look at the daily lines of commuters at the MRT, or the crammed and overcrowded buses and jeepneys. How can face masks indeed save you from transmission in such a highly stressed environment? Unless we do something drastic, we are, unfortunately, a textbook case of how easily such viruses can spread in a short amount of time.
It is good that the national government, upon the recommendation of the Department of Health, declared a state of national health emergency. This makes all health and medical centers on a high state of alert, and local governments on top of their own preparedness at the local level. But there are things we, as private individuals, can do to help. We don’t have to wait for the government to do what is necessary in our own backyard. And I am not talking about panic buying for unnecessary goods at the supermarket.
The greatest and immediate cause of virus infection now is human interaction and the need for travel. Therefore, what we need to do as private citizens is to limit such causes of interaction and our need to travel. Simply put, if it’s not necessary, don’t go out. Stay at home and limit contact with the crowd.
But I know this is easier said than done, especially since people need to go to work and go to school. And so, if I were a mayor of a city or an owner of a school or a company, I would declare, maybe for now, a limited suspension of work or classes for even just a week to help stave off and contain the local transmission. Maybe this is more important for the elementary level given that there are more people involved in bringing kids to school than older students. And if I own a company, I would do the same. I would have limited work suspension, if full suspension is out of the question. Those departments that can do work at home or telecommute, let them. In the time of COVID-19, let’s do away with celebrations and gatherings. Those reunions, homecomings, birthday celebrations or even just that Sunday family get together—we need to temporarily let them go.
We were blessed as a country in not being hit early with this virus. We had enough time to see the mistakes and effective containment practices in other countries. We saw what they did right in Singapore and Macau, where they have effectively prevented new infections. We also saw the mistakes of other countries that overlooked precaution protocols and got hit bad. Let’s not put that good head start to waste. Let’s do our fair share to help contain this virus before it reaches us right inside our very homes and infect our loved ones.
Thomas Tim Orbos was former DOTr undersecretary for roads and general manager of the MMDA. He is currently undertaking further studies at the McCourt School of Public Policy of Georgetown University. He can be reached via e-mail at thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu