The new normal

(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.)

Now that we are well into our third week of the lockdown in Luzon, attention has turned to what will happen on April 14, when the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is scheduled to end.

It’s being referred to as the “new normal”, which is anybody’s guess.

I thought this was the new normal – living from day to day at home, with only one member given a pass to provide or access basic goods and services; no public transportation; no school; no work for most of those living under the poverty line and this paranoia not to touch anything or anyone lest you get infected with the novel corona virus.

There are talks of a gradual lifting of the lockdown. A technical working group of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has been formed to set the parameters in determining the total or partial lifting of the ECQ. It will be led by the Department of Health (DoH).

DoH Secretary Francisco Duque says it’s too early to tell, given that the number of infected cases is not reflective of the true COVID-19 situation in the country since not all persons under monitoring or under investigation have been tested.

If we are to go the way of China, which is the only country that has eased its lockdown (initially in parts of the Hubei Province last March 25, with the provincial capital Wuhan to follow on April 8), the determining factor is the consistent decrease in the number of infected cases.

Fears remain, however, that lifting the restrictions may release thousands of people who could still be spreading the virus that causes COVID-19, without knowing they are sick. China’s health authorities do not count as confirmed cases those patients who test positive but don’t show symptoms.

There is no cure for COVID-19 yet, so there is a real possibility of a new wave of infections once the lockdown is totally lifted in China.

Our Health department is understandably cautious about lifting the lockdown here, totally or partially, because there is a backlog in terms of tests to be conducted to determine COVID-19. 

Just yesterday, Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer at the National Task Force on COVID-19, said mass testing of persons under monitoring and those under investigation is scheduled to start on April 14 yet.

Only then can government identify the COVID-19 carriers, isolate and treat them, he adds.

Logic then tells us that the lockdown should not be lifted by April 14, but our stomachs and pockets are telling us otherwise. 

Photo: CNN Philippines

Just last April 1, Quezon City police arrested residents of Sitio San Roque who staged a protest to demand help from the government. They claimed that they had not received any food or relief packs since the start of the lockdown.

Government is scrambling to implement a social amelioration program with cash doleouts and food packs that are slow in coming, and an emergency employment program that basically asks those from the informal sector who have been unable to work because of the lockdown to clean their barangays.

Now, it looks like government is leaning towards a measured response with those infected and possible carriers quarantined in large-scale facilities that are being converted into COVID-19 community quarantine centers like the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila, World Trade Center in Pasay City and the Philippine International Convention Center Forum Halls for starters.

Presumably, what will be enacted are targeted quarantines, while measures like social distancing, hand washing, the wearing of face masks and the suspension of activities encouraging mass gatherings will continue even as government revives economic activity.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who speaks for the IATF, says it all depends on the science.  

Let’s see.

DoH update: As of 4 p.m. of April 2, 2020, the Philippines has reported 2,633 confirmed corona virus cases, including 51 recoveries and 107 deaths.