A month

(Part of an ongoing account started on March 13, 2020 of how the spread of COVID-19 in our country and our government’s response has affected our lives.)

I can’t believe it. It’s been a month and I have managed to write every day.

I thought it would be difficult looking for topics, but there is actually stuff I am editing out.

Most of them have to do with negativity – in terms of what people post on social media, how they unnecessarily risk exposure to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the discrimination that frontliners are subjected to despite the herculean jobs they are doing, government efforts that go unnoticed, government inefficiencies that put people into predicaments - economic and healthwise… The list goes on and on.

I am aware that I have glossed over the impact of the lockdown on daily wage earners or the slow government aid that is coming their way. I haven't even gone into the bravery of individuals who actually give more than money.

I have not discussed government’s strategy in terms of flattening the curve, what we are doing better than our ASEAN neighbors if that can be said at all. Or what we are already doing so that we can slowly grow our economy. 

That part, I must admit, goes over my head. To go into that would stretch my brain power, at the end of which I still do not think I would make sense. Or know what I am talking about.

But I am an ordinary citizen, who is trying to keep this real while making life at home as bearable as I can so that we can keep safe, and not add to the statistics that already keep all those brave healthcare workers away from their families and homes.

We are being told that we are the first line of defense. When we keep leaving our homes and exposing ourselves to contact with probable carriers of the COVID-19, we breach that defense.

I should feel good. I should. But most of the time, I feel I am just hiding and waiting this out.

DoH update: As of 4 p.m. of April 13, 2020, the Philippines has reported 4,932 confirmed corona virus cases, including 242 recoveries and 315 deaths.