Are we ready?

The following statement posted on social media is from a doctor-friend, Dr. Bryan Albert T. Lim, who is an infectious disease specialist based in Cebu.

“Soon ECQ will be lifted. We will all face a new world. A world where our lives would depend on each other in the most literal way,” Dr. Bryan said.

“Do not take the virus for granted. Yes, true, that many are asymptomatic or only have mild symptoms. But some can actually die,” he warned.

“Bringing the virus home, and possibly harming our elderly and immunocompromised is a real threat. Also we have seen patients with no co-morbidities, young and healthy who were intubated or even die from COVID.”

“The threat is real. Let us all be careful. NEVER let our guards down.”

“Social distancing, hand hygiene, and wearing of masks and face shields at ALL times. It just takes only one small mistake to cause an outbreak in your homes, and possibly killing your loved ones. Let us be responsible for each other, let us not be the cause of death of another,” Dr. Bryan wrote.

I find it fitting to share Dr. Bryan’s reminder to all of us because I feel that there is a need to temper our anticipation of finally restarting our economy.

Weeks prior to the much-anticipated transition, many people are asking: How long are we going to suffer the economic damage before we realize that the “pandemic of fear” is more damaging than the pandemic itself?

But for Global Health Security senior editor Paul Nuki, these voices “sound a bit like children in the back of a car.”

Writing for The Telegraph, Nuki chided: “You have a 12 hour drive in front of you but no sooner do you turn out of the drive than they start asking, “when are we going to get there?”. They are not just struggling to fully comprehend the time in front of them but are not thinking of how they might use it constructively.”

Nuki is on point. For many of us it is no longer a question of when we will lift the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). We must now ask: How do we make the transition? What is our exit strategy?

Restarting the economy while saving lives. Can we do that? Are we ready?

For some of us who can still work from home, we will continue to stay at home, and perhaps just wander off to an empty beachfront or some mountain view during mental health breaks. I, for one, don’t want to add to the traffic and the long lines leading to checkpoints where I doubt if safe distancing between the checker and the one being checked is observed.

But for most of our daily wage earners, their choices are limited. How do we keep them safe from COVID-19?

The rate of testing per million of the population, coupled with thorough contact tracing, holds the key to our exit strategy.

The multidisciplinary team of faculty and researchers from the University of the Philippines in their May 28 report commended the government for the significant increase in testing capacity, which is now at 32,000 tests per day.

“With these gains, it is equally important to improve the turnaround time of COVID-19 test results by fast tracking the accreditation of more laboratories, investing in training of more human resource, and ensuring timely and sufficient laboratory supplies,” the team said.

In the same report, the team classified Cebu City and Mandaue City as “Medium Risk”. Both cities saw decreases in the number of COVID-19 cases. But the team noted that the trends do not take into account the 140 cases in Central Visayas that are still for validation. These also do not take into account the 7,119 individuals nationwide who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have not yet been included in the official count of COVID-19 patients of the Department of Health.

“The official count of COVID-19 cases in the entire country is 14,035 (as of May 24). The number of individuals who tested positive as of May 24 is 21,154,” the team from UP revealed, “while the reproduction number R for Cebu City and Mandaue City has decreased below 1, indicating flattening of the curve, this has to be sustained.”

This is not the time to lower our guards.