Rapid pass

(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.)

Today, the government announces the rapid pass system.

In the words of Cabinet Secretary and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases Spokesperson Karlo Nograles, the rapid pass system is designed to minimize contact between health frontliners and others authorized to work outside their homes, from those manning the checkpoints.

During the IATF virtual presscon aired over PTV, Nograles says the system revolves around the assignment of a QR code to every individual exempted from the lockdown and/or delivery truck carrying essential cargo, which will be scanned at checkpoints equipped with smartphones.

Smart Communications, Inc. and parent company Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. donated 200 Samsung A10 phones that police personnel at the checkpoints can immediately use to scan the QR codes/rapid pass to check their validity against data provided by approving agencies.

RapidPass is a project of DCTx (DEVCON Community of Technology Experts), a volunteer-based global community working with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to develop digital solutions that will help government response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DCTx Founder Winston Damarillo says they have some 929 Filipino developers not only based in the country, but also as far as Ireland, Silicon Valley, Chicago, etc. DCTx is organized and led by Developers Connect Philippines (DEVCON), a non-profit entity that syncs, supports, and champions the success of Filipino developers. The group developed rapid pass as an open source software to enable its use for free.

Damarillo adds that those who want to apply for a rapid pass can register at a link which will be operational by Monday, April 6, 2020 (said link has been deactivated as of 2023). Information will also be made available via the group’s FB account.

Implementation is initially limited to over 50 checkpoints in Metro Manila. There are suggestions that those already issued IATF identification cards will automatically be encoded into the rapid pass system.

Once implemented, the rapid pass system will speed up the flow of goods from the provinces to their markets. There are reports of food deliveries unable to get past checkpoints, prompting Government to have the Philippine National Police (PNP) take over those installed along the national and provincial roads.

More importantly, the system minimizes human contact and consequently, chances of exposure to and transmission of the novel corona virus, while allowing for the movement of essential workers, services, products and goods.

I think this is going to be part of the new normal.

DoH update: As of 4 p.m. of April 3, 2020, the Philippines has reported 3,018 confirmed corona virus cases, including 52 recoveries and 136 deaths.

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.

What we do

(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.)

This probably should have been one of my earlier posts.

At the start of the lockdown, my main concern was to stock up on food, water and medicine; control and monitor consumption; and maintain inventory.

This is what I do on any given day since I am a housewife. Even if we have help, I am the one who cooks and buys what we need. This is why it is my name that is on the quarantine pass.

The difference under the lockdown is that I am careful to limit food runs. I have to minimize exposure to the novel corona virus and the chances of getting not only myself infected, but also the rest of the household.

The line to the grocery store extends
into the street.

When I do go out, I put on the required face mask and am careful to put some distance between myself and the next person.

I realize that I must not only get enough of what we need, I have to make it last longer. I ration food, and I can do this because I am not only the cook, I am Mommy. Try complaining and you don’t eat. Ha ha.

I keep a few snacks on hand, but I will not replenish until it is time for the next food run. Neither will I look for what is not available. Snacks are just whatever junk food is left on the shelves, even if they are not my family’s favorite brand. They get eaten anyway.

At first, I did not think snacks were essential but I soon realize that it is the only luxury left to us and frankly, something we all enjoy. A meal is a meal. A bag of Boy Bawang is a bonus.

My husband is one of the fortunate ones who is working from home. At first, I thought this meant being on call, literally just responding to calls or emails intermittently throughout the day. I am surprised to find him putting in a full day’s work every day since the lockdown.

“What EXACTLY do you do?” I ask when I find him in yet another teleconference. He barely emerges from the bedroom where he has set up office except to check if there’s a bag of chips left in the snack basket.

I am surprised that I do not find my daughter online or in front of the TV as much as I thought she would be. Her chores are minimal so she does have a lot of time on her hands. I find her reading or drawing or lately, doing some embroidery.

There is no moving-up ceremony or graduation for her and I guess, most students. There is a semblance of closure, though, since her student council put together a slideshow meant to replace the actual ceremony. The slideshow not only parades all of their photos in clusters, it also includes messages from their teachers and the student council president.

Before this, I had not entirely looked forward to attending the moving-up ceremony because parking is difficult in her school, traffic can get horrible, and seats are hard to find if you do not go early. Now, I watch the slideshow and tear up.

Other than that, it's routine. Between the help and myself, we keep the house spic and span, everyone fed and in clean and laundered clothes, the plants watered, and the dogs bathed – all the time tuned in to the news, whether it’s on TV, radio and/or the Internet. Only our daughter tunes out. She listens to music.

Weekends are different.  We either watch a movie or TV series on Netflix and/or play games. Right now, it’s “Taboo” - a word, guessing, and party game where the objective is for a player to have their partners guess the word on the player's card without using the word itself or five additional words listed on the card.

There is a lot of laughing and arguing and more laughing. Hubby and I realize that daughter’s vocabulary is rather wide and she is skillful at building a good description of the word that must be guessed without using the prohibited five synonyms or words associated with it.

We catch each other’s eye and we smile. Yes, we should have more of these moments when we interact with each other as a family. All too soon, it is time to attend Mass streamed live from the Manila Cathedral.

But before we stop playing, hubby asks that we play “Monopoly” next time. There’s a reason I did not take up Economics or a Business course. It’s the same reason I do not want to play said board game.

Mommy is mommy. It’s “Pictionary” next time. 😜

DoH update: As of 4 p.m. of April 1, 2020, the Philippines has reported 2,311 confirmed corona virus cases, including 50 recoveries and 96 deaths.

Testing 1, 2, 3…

(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.)

As of 4 p.m. today, the Philippines reports 538 new cases of confirmed corona virus cases –so far the highest jump in a day. There are now 2,084 confirmed corona virus cases in the country, including 49 recoveries and 88 deaths.

Days before this, Department of Health (DoH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire had prepared us for an “artificial rise” in the number of cases as the department improved its testing capacity and reduced its backlog with the addition of more testing laboratories and the arrival of testing kits from other countries.

Since the outbreak began, only the DoH’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa has been testing samples of COVID-19. This function was extended on March 19, 2020 to five subnational laboratories that were cleared as testing centers by the World Health Organization (WHO).

These are the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center in Baguio City; San Lazaro Hospital in Manila City; University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health, Manila; Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City; and Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.

Also, some 168,000 test kits have arrived in the Philippines:  a donation of 100,000 from China and 43,000 from Singapore, and an importation of 25,000 from South Korea.

The Philippines can now run 1,000 tests per day from the previous daily average of 300, said Health Secretary Francisco Duque last March 30.

Today, National Task Force (NTF) COVID-19 chief implementer, Peace Process Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. says there are plans to carry out “massive testing” of persons under monitoring (PUM) and persons under investigation (PUI) for COVID-19, as well as health workers on the front lines of battling the pandemic.

Widespread testing is crucial in the fight against the pandemic as it allows health authorities to isolate and treat infected people.

However, the country is only just now gaining traction in terms of equipping itself to fight the disease on the medical front. Aside from increasing testing centers and acquiring more test kits, our health authorities also need qualified testing personnel.

This is just about testing. There’s a host of other problems regarding treatment that range from overflowing hospitals, lack of hospital equipment, lack of personal protective gear for health frontliners, etc.

So, testing…1, 2, 3.  We’ve just stepped up to the mike. We aren’t singing yet.

No work, no pay

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

It’s past 3 p.m. before I remember to give our help her salary. I could kick myself.

Poor Fedela must have been wondering if she should remind me about her salary. I know her well enough to say that she may have kept quiet about it, knowing I would have to go out to an ATM to get the cash to pay her.

She confirms it, telling me that I could put it off till my next food run since we are taking care of her needs anyway. I am touched and thank her, but I remind her that while she may not need it for herself right now, she has family members in the province who are not as well placed.

She hesitates, but only for a moment. Now that Cebu Province is under enhanced community quarantine, most of her immediate family members have had to leave their jobs in the city and are now in their home town. No work, no pay.

Two of her nieces, she says, were asked to join a skeletal work force at an export processing zone (EPZ) but the mother felt that the risk of them getting stranded in the city at such an uncertain time was too great. Almost all of the companies in the EPZ have closed shop and let their workers go. Some were given wages; others, food packs; and the rest, nothing.

She also disclosed that several of her relatives work for just one firm manufacturing a popular food pasalubong, albeit in different branches. When the firm decided to close shop for the duration of the lockdown, all of them lost their sources of income. Only some received cash subsidies, the rest got food packs.

Photo taken from Top Gear Phils.

These stories are replicated all over the country. Only the names and the circumstances are different. Latest Labor Force Survey figures put the number of informal sector workers at 15.6 million, or 38% of the total working population of the country.¹ This sector includes ambulant vendors, jeepney drivers, domestic helpers, tricycle drivers, and other daily wage earners.

Some of them have a family member/s who continue/s to provide a basic service at this time, like a bank security guard, supermarket cashier, hospital cleaner, purified drinking water delivery boy, etc. There’s money coming in, but it is not enough to cover for the loss of income from the rest. 

The rest, well...they look to government and civic-minded individuals, groups and companies for help.

When President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire Philippines under a six-month state of calamity last March 16, he allowed national and local governments to access their quick response funds to bankroll COVID-19 interventions.

This is how local government units (LGUs) were able to buy food packs which, in most cases, were distributed a week after the effectivity of the lockdown.

The Department of Social Welfare and Distribution (DSWD) was supposed to follow through with additional assistance. But in its twitter account, the agency reports that “as of 6 a.m., 30 March 2020, a total of P46,638,918.97 worth of Family Food Packs have been distributed by DSWD Field Offices in response to the requests of LGUs for resource augmentation.”

So many barangays are still waiting for those family food packs. 

On March 25, the President signed the "Bayanihan to Heal as One Act," which gives him, among others, the power to give 18 million low-income families P5,000 to P8,000 in emergency cash aid, depending on the prevailing minimum wage in the region.

I was listening to DSWD Director Irene Dumlao being interviewed over DZMM’s special coverage of the COVID-19  Pandemic a while ago, and she could not even give an estimate as to when the agency could start giving the emergency cash aid.

The President’s emergency powers also allow him to augment the budget for the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) and COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP).

Under CAMP, DOLE has P1.3 billion to provide a one-time P5,000 cash aid for about 250,000 quarantine displaced workers. 

Meanwhile, TUPAD-BKBK (Barangay Ko, Bahay Ko) is a P180-million emergency employment program that pays some 18,000 informal sector workers minimum wage to disinfect homes around their area.

All that money looks good on paper. I'm sure it would look even better in the hands of those that need it. Eventually.

DoH update: As of 4 p.m. of March 30, the Philippines has reported 1,546 confirmed corona virus cases, including 42 recoveries and 78 deaths.

¹Patty Pasion, “FAST FACTS: What you need to know about PH's informal sector workers”, May 09, 2017, https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/169006-fast-facts-philippines-informal-sector-workers