Covid-19 global impacts are grim as well as bright

The surge of the new coronavirus infection, code-named COVID-19, continues unabated on a global scale. Per the daily monitoring published by the Guardian, the total number of confirmed cases worldwide, as of March 19, was 222,642. It rose by 18,413 from the previous day’s 204,229. The number of deaths also rose from 8,242 on March 18 to 9,115 the day after.  

Somewhat comforting, however, the number of recoveries among those infected and treated rose from 82,105 to 84,506 between the two days. Varying modes of treatment, experimental at best, and levels of scientific health care available have accounted for the recoveries. Absent a definitive cure yet, as the World Health Organization has repeatedly stressed, scientists around the world are furiously conducting clinical trials on drugs that may stop the virus causing COVID-19.  

For a rundown on the confirmed cases of infection reported among 11 Asian countries, here are the figures from the Guardian as of March 19: Hubei (China), 67,800; South Korea, 8,565; Japan, 889; Malaysia, 790; Singapore, 313; Indonesia, 227; Philippines, 217; Thailand, 212; Hong Kong, 192; India, 169; and Vietnam, 75.

A morale-boosting report came last Thursday from China’s health commission. For the first time since its outbreak in December 2019 in Wuhan, the central city of Hubei province, no new domestic transmission of the virus was noted. While there were 34 new cases recorded, these were all persons described as “new overseas arrivals.” The report is deemed a “major milestone” in China’s fight against COVID-19, which the WTO belatedly declared as a pandemic.

Once no new domestic case crops up within 14 days in Hubei, the lockdown of Wuhan may be lifted, according to China Daily, a Communist Party of China publication. The report further said, of the 81,000 infection cases reported in that country, just 7,263 remained ill as of March 19. The total deaths, mostly in Hubei, numbered 3,245.

The other positive report comes from South Korea, which has drastically reduced the spread of the virus within a short period, through aggressive testing among its citizens. After China, that country had the highest number of COVID-19 confirmed cases: 8,565. This week the WHO cited South Korea and Taiwan for their successes in limiting the spread of the infection, urging all countries affected by the virus to emulate them.

On March 19, South Korea reported only 152 new cases, a huge drop from 909 cases on Feb. 29, the highest increase in a day since the first case was recorded on Jan. 20. Thus far, 1,540 have been discharged from hospitals after fully recovering from the virus. South Korea has so far tested 295,000 people, at the rate of 15,000 a day. A significant factor noted is the South Korean people’s cooperation and trust in the actions of their government.

From China, the epicenter of the pandemic has moved to Europe, where now about 250 million people are subjected to either lockdowns or other forms of restrictions on their movements. I have picked up, from foreign media reports, certain noteworthy impacts of these restrictions and the people’s responses/reactions in what is now the borderless European Union, consisting of 27 nations.

For instance, here’s how the New York Times saw the impact on European solidarity:

“Today, Europeans are told to hide away, erecting borders between countries, inside their cities and neighborhoods, around their homes – to protect themselves from their neighbors, even [the elderly, deemed most vulnerable to the virus] from their grandchildren.

“Confronting a virus that respects no borders, this modern Europe without borders is building them everywhere,” the report continues. Putting the borders up may not make much difference, it adds, because “the invisible threat is already within.” Even so, the NYT noted, “there is inevitably a turn back to the state for expertise, control and reassurance.” 

As the pandemic spreads, from Italy, to Spain, France, Germany, and beyond, “there is a growing sense of the need for harsh, even authoritarian methods, many of them taken from China,” the report pointed out.

Italy has been the country most severely hit by the virus where the number of infections has reportedly exceeded those in China. Here, another news report struck a different chord. Photographs show local residents opening their windows and going out on the balconies of their multi-level buildings. Taking their cue from social media, they did so to applaud and cheer doctors, nurses and other frontline health workers giving their all to COVID-19 patients:

“It started with the national anthem. Then came the piano chords, trumpet blasts, violin serenades, and even the clanging of pots and pans – all of it spilling from the people’s homes, out of windows and from balconies, and rippling across rooftops.” On Saturday afternoon (a week ago), a nationwide round of applause broke out for the doctors on the frontlines. “It was from our hearts,” it quoted an elderly woman, “to say thanks and show that we can get past this [pandemic].”

The NYT report observed that COVID-19 “has exposed the flaws of those countries it has struck the hardest, whether it be the reflex for secrecy of China, the downplaying of the crisis in Iran, or the initial confusion and fragmentation in the Italian response.”  

But to the extent that COVID-19 is “a virus that tries people’s souls,” the report noted, “it has also demonstrated the strengths of those national characters.” It pointed out that in China, truck drivers risked infection to bring desperately needed food to the people in Wuhan. And in Iran, it cited videos that show doctors “in full scrubs and masks dancing to keep spirits up.”

Talking about national character manifesting itself: Our own National Artist Ryan Cayabyab has announced a live nightly concert on social media, starting Monday. He will be joined by countless artists serenading us from their own homes. It’s a heartening show of solidarity with fellow human beings and global citizens. 

Thanks also to social media, family and friends finding themselves under lockdown abroad are bridging the distance and feeling less cut off from home.

Meanwhile, the sun shines bright. You can hear the kids laughing and shouting as they play. I plant some alugbati stems in the yard, hoping they will take root, grow and give us nutritious leaves to pick a couple of weeks from now.

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