United States March 24, 2020: “Trump’s 15-day plan to slow the coronavirus’ spread is too short, experts say. Flattening the curve could take at least several more weeks. The plan involves asking healthy Americans to avoid social gatherings and work from home. But public-health experts say these measures will be necessary for more than 15 days—at minimum, they’re needed for several more weeks. One public-health expert said social distancing should be enforced until a vaccine is developed in 12 to 18 months.” Actually, contrary to the press/media, it was the plan of the office of the Surgeon General of the US, Dr. Jerome Adams.
The Philippines one week ago on August 6, 2021: “We’re going around in circles.” We can always depend on some of our “think-tanks” to come up with insightful comments that are always short of solutions. Meanwhile, even in the face of criticism, there are those groups that are working to offer ideas to alleviate our national portion of the global pandemic.
And to those groups that are being complained about, do not take it personally. We are all, from top to bottom, frustrated, worried, and angry. You chose to raise your head up to try to help and “no good deed goes unpunished.”
On the other hand, it does look like we are going around in circles. Ready for the merry-go-round ride?
On March 8, 2020, President Duterte placed the entire Philippines under state of public health emergency because of the Covid-19 threat. Congressman Joey Salceda recommended a lockdown of the entire National Capital Region for a period of seven days. So far so good.
A “community quarantine” of Metro Manila started on March 15 up to April 14 and travel through land, domestic air, and domestic sea from Metro Manila was all but completely suspended. On June 1, 2020, Metro Manila exited modified enhanced community quarantine and transitioned to general community quarantine. But in July, the number of cases began rising and Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal went back to MECQ from August 4 until August 18. Cases peaked in the middle of August after Metro Manila was under enchanced community quarantine (ECQ) from August 6 to 20.
But then, as 2021 rolled in, there was a major turn for the worst. By the beginning of March 2021, the caseload was “surging.” ECQ was reimposed in the Greater Manila Area. It was originally set to expire on April 4. However, on April 3, it was extended for another week. On April 11, the quarantine measure in the area was downgraded to MECQ for the remainder of April, later extended up to May 14.
Now we are back to ECQ planned to go from August 6 to the 20th. Good luck with that. The average number of daily cases is almost back to where it was during the historic peak of April 2021.
There is no satisfaction in saying that the lockdown is killing the Philippine economy. We all know that, and the latest quarter-on-quarter GDP growth figures are really a disaster. The fact that the annual growth is up means very little. The annual GDP growth rate is not the light at the end of the tunnel.
The Philippines is progressing fairly well in vaccinating the populace. Just do not look at any global news stories questioning the effectiveness of the vaccines against the new mutations. We have no other choice but to jab, jab, and jab some more.
However, the question must be asked. Are lock downs effective against keeping the number of cases manageable or to “flatten the curve,” or are we doing something wrong? We keep locking down and the virus seems to keep getting stronger.
