After a year with COVID-19, The Philippines seemed it haven’t learned a thing

One year ago today, the Philippine Department of Health begun their Novel Coronavirus (NCoV) case monitoring in the country with only a few numbers hitting the database day by day. Back then, tests for the novel coronavirus was scarce and it would take a few days to almost a week to get results.

NCoV was the name of the virus before the Center for Disease Control (CDC) gave the Novel Coronavirus an official name as COVID-19 when it turned into a Pandemic and affected everything primarily our health, economic and political stability.

In the Philippines, the government implemented a tier system quarantine and lockdown from Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), General Community Quarantine (GCQ), Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ), Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ). Each system has a designated level of quarantine restrictions from the basic implementation of minimum health standard protocol and up to a almost complete community lockdown.

However, since the last quarter of 2020, the Philippine government had eased up the quarantine protocol in the entire country and suggested to reopen more businesses to reignite the economy but as loosen restrictions are observed, so does the increasing number of cases today.

The situation was basically under control before placing most part of the country under MGCQ, though there are a few areas in the country that are still under GCQ but that didn’t help curb the spread of the infection. New variants are even detected in the country which might have also contributed to the rising number of cases.

People nowadays are living as if there is no more COVID-19 Pandemic and volume of people going out and about are increasing. Today, you see private cars and commuter vehicles ply the streets with the latter fully packed at most during rush hours. You’d all see less people following the minimum health standards and everything we so much care to during during lockdowns and now we wonder why the number of cases are increasing.

In fact, It has become worst compared to a few months ago and even if vaccines are now available but only the frontliners are getting them at the moment especially those working in the government, still it didn’t helped our current situation.

It’s like we haven’t learned anything during the past year and It looks as if we are just entering the pandemic for the first time. Perhaps, the huge number of recoveries triggered the people to care less or it’s just that people doesn’t understand the purpose of a minimum health standard is despite the massive information campaign from DOH and other concerned government agencies.

Controversies surrounding PhilHealth and DOH could also be other of the factors that turned people sour on our management of the Pandemic but one thing is for sure, COVID-19 is still here and it is wrecking havoc in our lives and not following the advice of the government especially from our Health experts is just a false move for us that could lead to a disaster.