EXPLAINER: The Novel Coronavirus' Effects to the Philippines, and What We Can Do About It

It happened swiftly. Everyone was caught off-guard; even the strongest and the wealthiest nation in the planet bowed down due to the ill-fated COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the World Health Organization, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with symptoms such as a cough, fever, and in more severe cases, difficulty breathing. According to health authorities, you can protect yourself by washing your hands frequently, avoiding touching your face, and avoiding close contact (1 meter or 3 feet) with people who are unwell.

As of this writing, there has been 1, 363, 365 total of reported confirmed positive cases worldwide, 292, 467 recoveries, and 76, 507 deaths. Of course, this data changes so rapidly. These confirmed cases aren't all cases. They only include people who tested positive. Testing rules and availability vary from country to country. Today, DOH reports 104 new COVID-19 cases, 14 new deaths, and 11 new recoveries.This brings the totals to 3,764 confirmed cases, 177 deaths, and 84 recoveries as of 4pm today, April 7.

As previous routines in our daily lives were greatly affected, we notice a multitude of stories from all across the globe how the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor struggled to survive. Unimaginable horrific situations from various hospitals and medical facilities stormed the news outlets and social media platforms brought about by the devastation caused by the novel corona virus. As more and more countries report daily rise of infected persons and fatalities, the world is in panic as governments look for vaccines and medicines for this disease. In fact, solidarity tests and trials are in place between medical facilities following strict protocol of the World Health Organization.

In the Philippines, the government declared the whole country in a state of national emergency as early as March this year. The crisis later turned out really futile as local transmissions emerged from a number of local towns and cities. To stop the widespread infection, and in the hope of containing the virus, the Department of Health, have urged the public to observe extreme measures such as constant hand washing, social and physical distancing, and among others. Extreme situations calls for extreme actions, they say. With this, the government formed the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) that meets everyday to tackle this emergency situation. One of the things that were imposed is the on-going "lockdown" and placing parts of the country to enhanced community quarantine.

Business establishments were shut down, schools were closed, churches and other institutions were forced to temporarily stop serving the public. Private offices, factories, car repair shops and malls have closed. The entire country is under strict quarantine and the army and other enforcers are on the streets to monitor compliance.The homeless were forced to vacate their abode and were rescued to temporary shelters prepared by local government units for them.  In fact, some public areas were converted to temporary quarantine facilities.

With the implementation of enhanced community quarantine and among others, most Filipinos were forced unemployed. While other establishments and government offices impose work-from-home measures, many other workers and other vulnerable sectors were having hard times to cope up with the situation. The Department of Labor and Employment answered this by giving out financial assistance to affected vulnerable individuals.

Those still working in hospitals have their hands full dealing with the outbreak. They are modern-day heroes sacrificing and doing what they can to fight in the midst of insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE), uncertainties, and the like. At first, even those from private hospitals were overwhelmed with the situation. To add to the dilemma, a number of health workers have been infected, and worst, some even died from the virus. Their infection and death is attributed to patient's who lied travel histories, exposure to COVID patients, and among others. With hospitals preparing for an expected surge in cases in the weeks ahead, the race is on to get doctors and nurses the equipment they need in time. At some point in time, the lack of funds has even forced some health care professionals to go ‘begging on social media’ for personal protective equipment amid the outbreak. Fortunately, a number of individuals, celebrities, social media influencers, politicians, business establishments, and other organizations heed the call. Truly, angels emerged and stories of compassion have been flooding our newsfeeds as well--we will focus our next post about that.

The government is on top of the situation and in fact, fast tracked whatever means that can be done in light with the situation. Measures and actions of the government mentioned here are only some of the several ways they have adopted throughout the whole country. Thankfully, local government units are also actively engaged towards the matter. Truthfully, everyone is doing their best in our quest to bring back what was normal. On the other hand, other government agencies are also crowdsourcing as we they look forward to implement the "new normal."

According to the Department of Health website, there’s currently no vaccine to prevent coronavirus disease (COVID-19). 

The website further cited that you can protect yourself and help prevent spreading the virus to others if you:

• Wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds, with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub.
• Cover your nose and mouth with a disposable tissue or flexed elbow when you cough or sneeze.
• Avoid close contact (1 meter or 3 feet) with people who are unwell.
• Stay home and self-isolate from others in the household if you feel unwell. 
• Don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth if your hands are not clean.

While the rest of the world is busy tackling this crisis, all we can do for now is to stay at home and keep on praying for the safety of our families, for the healing of those who are sick, for the strength and courage to our health workers, for the success of our government, and for this COVID-19 pandemic to end as soon as possible.

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References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic_by_country_and_territory

https://www.who.int/

 https://www.doh.gov.ph/

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/733003/philippines-covid-19-deaths-now-177-cases-climb-to-3-764/story/?utm_source=GMANews&utm_medium=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0UCBY8xcGTfyOv5R_9yXKC7MJ6oo8FJ0qeHYUKAyFhrlOeT75mPleV7rk