Just so we’re on the right track, let’s get back to the numbers. Globally, the million mark has been breached, with total cases standing at 1,007,977. The death toll all over the world is 52,771 while recovery count is 208,949. Hereabouts, nationally, we’ve got 2,633 infection cases, death count stands at 107, while recoveries listed up 51. In just 7 days, the numbers have gone up by 50%, indicating a relentlessly continuous ascent.
Meantime, just the other day, the Baguio tally indicates a somewhat hopeful development. As posted by the City Health Office, zero positive test results have taken place in the last 5 days, something that bears significance in the pre-emptive, pro-active efforts our city government has been doing since Day One of the ECQ. It may well be the breakthrough Mayor Benjie has been striving hard, along with City Hall officials, to achieve non-stop, the very development that so enthused a blogger to exude, “Baguio reaches covid-19 peak and flattens the curve!”
Indeed, news of this positive note — decidedly in the nature of nothing positive in 5 days time — is a source of hope anytime, even an inspiration for everyone to continue fighting, to keep on the faith, to stay within the course of what can be considered as an over-the-hill struggle. But, does it really?
It may well be a gentle reminder that breakthrough developments took place in those 5 days, when no positive Covid case had been recorded, chief among which are the test kits that have augmented the very instruments that have been lacking in previous days. With these literally at hand, more tests have been done, even as the results of previous work have yet to yield. With no result forthcoming as yet, it can happen that the 5-day clean as a whistle development cannot but indicate “nothing positive.”
It may be foolhardy and deceiving even to believe that the breakthrough of no-positive incidence in just 5 days’ time has already signified that the city’s battle against the deadly virus has gone past the hill, even to now be mesmerized that “the curve has been flattened.” It is a source of hope, indeed, nothing more than having the saving rope thrust into the hand of the fallen still on the ridge, clinging to get over the hump.
As in the case of Italy, which has accounted for more infections, more fatalities than the coronavirus epicenter east of the world (except for continental USA as of last count), the curve may have been flattened when their own updated numbers suggest a declining rate of transmission and infection. “We are seeing some hope, some light,” asserts a health official in Lombardy, “but the tunnel is very, very long.” The time to open up the champagne is not yet at hand.
Which brings us to our own numbers piling up in command centers set up by our covid-19 task forces. We may well view the 5-day “no positive” incidence as just the first major step in a long, winding journey. Truly, the virus is now and here, awaiting detection in the case of PUIs and PUMs whose own rate of increase should always be considered. No letup in the “whole of government response” must be sustained till the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is well on sight.
The restrictions imposed should remain as sternly imposed from Day One, adjusted every now and then to keep up with on-the-ground realities that law enforcers put up day in and day out. Health and sanitation practices should be maintained, more regularly than before, if only to ensure that by the collective dirt and debris we leave behind, no one gets infected, not just from covid-19, but from other health threats lurking in the premises.
Staying healthy and keeping ourselves protected from health risk should be fostered at all times, not just as a personal duty, but even more so as part of our communal responsibility to others — first, to our loved ones, then to our neighbors in the larger realm of community interaction. Social distancing, beginning from a physical framework, should be enforced sternly, keeping us apart even as we have to accept togetherness in the common struggle to get us through in these trying times.
But beyond the issues of health that our initial struggle has made us one community driven by a common purpose, there should also be included the agenda of economic amelioration for the populace that has borne the brunt of difficulties triggered by work stoppages, rapidly depleting incomes, and rising cost of living. Workers, rising entrepreneurs, those making do from the fringes of the economy have been suddenly thrust to the wall, living by the hour to make it through the day. Ameliorating their welfare, so downtrodden in the first place, must take paramount importance just as well, and in swifter pace, to avert perishing not from the virus but from the virulence of hunger and destituteness.
For those of us who have had more in life, the spirit of Christian charity has sparked in us well-thought out acts to spread the sunshine of what has remained a blessing. For those unable to cope with life’s harshness, made more excruciating by the ill attention they project, keep up the faith that more can be acquired by those who wait by the virtue of patience.
Government, whether national and local, is assuredly getting every obstacle out of the way to keep everyone out of risk. Mayor Benjie may be showing the way to do the job efficiently and well, inspiringly a man in command and in control of things that are within his competent best. But alone, he can only do so much; with each other, standing together but apart, rising several notches in focused aspiration, we can achieve much, decidedly as one.
In the meantime, it may do well for those of us distant enough to be in harm’s way to plan ahead and find better ways of helping the government address lingering concerns, without having to stand in the way of better enforcement, of better endeavors, of smarter means to get us over the hill.
To instill hope amid helplessness, to inculcate self-discipline amid disobedience to health practices that imperil the people’s health, safety and protection, to foster a sense of courage gathered from the people’s inner strengths — all these can well serve as our stepping stones in climbing up the proverbial ladder away from the deadly threat. We have the collective competence to bounce back, the characteristic confidence to work our impending future, and the sterling character virtues to rise above the momentary trials shackling our life.
The numbers may momentarily be beckoning, but being one with each other should get us going stronger than ever, healing as one, rising as one, winning as one solid, indivisible community of the finest warriors anywhere else.
