Here to stay

There was an interesting post on social media yesterday. Accompanying a photo of throngs of people wearing masks but clearly unmindful of physical distancing was the message: “Konting hinahon lang po. Wag po tayo magtulakan. Lahat tayo mabibigyan ng COVID.”

A bit of patience. Let’s not push and shove. We’ll all be given COVID.

The post would be hilarious if such practices didn’t pose serious risks to public health, and if such scenes are exceptions rather than the rule.

Sadly, it seems like such scenes aren’t uncommon, judging from images taken since Metro Manila and other areas under enhanced community quarantine eased into the modified ECQ and general CQ.

In Cavite, the surge of crowds over the weekend proved so frustrating that the provincial government ordered all shopping malls shut down again. The order, however, was lifted yesterday.

With efficient management and proper enforcement of the rules, I think most Filipinos are ready to observe public health safety protocols. Shoppers even in public markets mind roped areas and stand on visual cues on the ground for distancing while waiting in line.

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The operative word is efficiency. In the first weekend of MECQ, for example, bills for certain services were finally delivered. So there were long lines at payment counters inside malls. More personnel could have been assigned to the payment counters. Instead, people who endured an interminable wait were told upon reaching the counter that there were limits to the number of bills they could pay per person.

I can understand the logic behind the idea of discouraging one person from paying the bills of the entire office or neighborhood – a common practice even before the pandemic. So why not revive the pre-COVID counters dedicated to multiple transactions?

The current payment restrictions affected those settling the bills for two or three houses belonging to the same owner. And in one bizarre case in a mall in southern Metro Manila, a woman who was paying for two months’ worth of electricity, which was consolidated in one bill, was forced to pay only one month’s worth. So the woman had to wait in a long line again yesterday, adding to the crowding, to settle the rest of the bill.

Let’s just hope that such inefficiency and stupidity are merely birth pains as businesses transition to MECQ, and the gaps will be corrected quickly. Otherwise, other local governments might follow Cavite’s example and shutter malls again, even for one day.

As for the rest of the rules, people are generally ready to comply, and they expect others to do the same. I’ve seen people throw dagger looks at the pasaway without masks or who jostle or try to jump the line.

Unfortunately, the ranks of the pasaway could rise with inefficient management and enforcement of rules.

The Philippine National Police in particular, whose members are in the frontlines of quarantine enforcement, needs credibility to get public cooperation. Credibility is what the PNP commander for Metro Manila, Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, lost in that mañanita during which he even blew the candle on a cake. What if 19 people accosted by police for gathering on a private driveway, for example, say they are simply having a mañanita like the chief of the National Capital Region Police Office?

PNP chief Archie Gamboa aggravated the credibility problem by insisting that the NCRPO commander is “hard to replace.” No one is irreplaceable in government.

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There was another image circulating on social media yesterday, comparing COVID deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in the Philippines to those in Spain, Italy, the UK, France, Sweden, the United States and Germany.

Those are countries, however, with the highest death tolls from COVID (Brazil is now added to the list, at third place).

I don’t know why we like to compare ourselves with the worst, instead of setting the bar high and using the best as the benchmark. Why not compare our COVID record with those of South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam, which prepared early and efficiently for the approaching health crisis?

We should be looking at best practices in dealing with the pandemic, especially because like the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus, the COVID-causing SARS coronavirus-2 may “never go away,” according to a World Health Organization expert.

Unlike HIV, the coronavirus disease 2019 is so highly contagious we have to wear face masks and stay away from other people by at least a meter or two.

Wearing face masks and frequent handwashing are easy enough – a small price to pay for keeping pathogens at bay.

It’s the need for physical distancing that’s wreaking havoc on global economic health. Now we realize that proximity to other humans is almost like air: its reduction or disappearance is an existential threat, for both human life and the economy.

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With no vaccine or cure for COVID-19 in sight, the world economy is already in the intensive care unit. How much longer can we afford to remain in the ICU?

Not a moment longer, if governments can help it. So from north to south, east to west, all over the planet, economies are opening up. And people are rushing to return to normal – whether old, new or hybrid, anything is still more normal than the abnormality of quarantines and lockdowns.

The easing is in fact a dangerous period, during which we all need to exercise even more caution and adhere strictly to public health protocols for preventing infection.

Even with testing capability expanding, we’re still a long way from determining the true extent of COVID-19 prevalence in our country – especially since we’ve been told that many positive cases are asymptomatic. Even the antibody rapid test kits now being disseminated need validation by the “gold standard” polymerase chain reaction test.

The easing of quarantine rules calls for even stronger self-discipline in observing safety protocols, not just to protect ourselves, but also to prevent ourselves from infecting others in case we have become asymptomatic COVID cases.

The MECQ is no time for complacency, but for even more stringent observance of health precautions.