Quarantine stay

My best friend recently came home from the United Kingdom to marry her partner of almost eight years. All the wedding preparations had been set, venues were booked, the officiating judge was scheduled, and suppliers were already notified of the big day. Everyone was just waiting for her to arrive. However, anxiety added up to the excitement that she was feeling as the protocols for returning overseas Filipinos kept on changing. If she were to be diverted to Manila and go through a 10-day quarantine, she would miss the wedding.

A lot of thoughts raced through her head. Thankfully enough, she flew in a day after the diversion was lifted. After acquiring a negative RT-PCR test two days after arrival, she was sent home to continue quarantine. Home to where her family is, where her suppliers went to send her whatever was needed for the last-minute touches to the wedding. Today, she is now married.

Her story is only one of the many from OFWs who go through the same feeling as they book their flight going home. They don’t want to go through a long quarantine period because their companies abroad don’t give them the luxury of a long vacation. Others are in a hurry to go home because of certain emergencies; a dying loved one, death of a family member, medical emergencies, and so on. The long stay inside a hotel or a facility only adds to the turbulent feelings inside.

Our governor has been keen to lobby for this on a national level, as these protocols have already been established in Cebu for quite some time. The swab upon arrival has allowed the province to easily control the infection from those who are already tested positive as they land. The repeat test on the 7th day as a confirmatory has not been neglected as well. There is technically no breach in protocol, just a bit of a bend to go around it. Yet this is not for personal agenda but for the convenience of our fellow Filipinos who have been longing to go home amidst the pandemic.

Yet the effort to streamline the process seems to be in vain. Instead of welcoming the new development, she is receiving backlash from none other than the president himself. Despite a meeting to lay down facts and data that show a decline in the number of cases, officials refuse to believe that her protocols are efficient. They would rather implement theirs, which hasn’t contributed to the curb.

We all understand that we have to be very careful in dealing with the virus and the other variants that come with it, but there has to be a balance that also promotes common sense. The Provincial Board, along with the governor and national officials should have been done by now discussing the merits of this protocol. Whatever the outcome may be will shape the way we treat our Filipinos coming home from abroad.