COVID-19 is highly survivable. Chinese authorities have reported fatality rates as high as 2.3 percent. Other experts, however, citing the mildness of the disease and the relatively high probability that people recover from it without ever seeking or receiving medical treatment, claim that the fatality rate is probably closer to just a fraction of 1 percent.
Nevertheless, COVID-19 does carry the possibility of death. People above the age of 80 are at the greatest risk, with the chances of dying dropping as the patient gets younger. Having preexisting medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension, complicates matters, as well. Having said that, men are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, leading some people to chuckle bleakly about International Women’s Month.
So while it is true that there is no need to panic, this doesn’t mean that we should be unconcerned. You may not die from COVID-19, but even just contracting the illness will put a person through the wringer. There’s the cost of treatment, for one thing. And with the need to ensure that no one catches the disease from you, there is a very real possibility of income loss, especially in the case of those for whom work-from-home arrangements are unlikely—contractual workers and workers in the retail industries spring to mind.
Fortunately, risk reduction behaviors are effective and simple enough to adopt. Frequent handwashing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is probably the single most effective preventive measure against COVID-19. And if handwashing isn’t possible, the use of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol is recommended. So is covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, and taking steps to protect yourself from other people coughing or sneezing. This is what masks are most useful for, although, they aren’t as indispensable as all the panic buying would seem to suggest since coughing or sneezing into your elbow would work just as well.
Everyone should also avoid unnecessary physical contact. If the French can dispense with kissing each other on both cheeks, we can certainly do without all the hand shaking, high-fiving, and fist bumping. Some people have been taking to bumping elbows, but that just looks too silly when you could simply wave or nod hello from a safe-but-still-sociable distance.
People should also seriously think twice about congregating in large groups, simply because the possibility of infection rises as the number of people in any given location increases. This was the reasoning behind the Commission on Elections’ recent decision to suspend the registration of voters for the rest of March. Last week alone, Comelec offices recorded 74,928 voter registration related transactions.
The week before that, more than 71,000. By any measure, these numbers represent a massive risk of infection. A temporary stop to the list-up reduces the possibility of transmission significantly, both among the thousands nationwide who come to register daily, and between the registrants and the Comelec employees on the other side of the counter.
If by the end of March our health authorities haven’t yet reined in the transmission of COVID-19, or if the dynamics of our collective response to this outbreak haven’t improved, the Comelec will have to decide what further steps need to be taken. For now, however, we have to take some comfort in the fact that, while we may not eradicate the threat of coronavirus infection with the suspension of voter registration, we can at least not contribute to its spread.