Tough times we’re having, but still resilient enough to plod it on, strive it further, get past the pandemic, and get going for good.
That’s exactly where we’re all in, braving the odds, battling it out, and bettering up down and up the road. Vaccination has gone several notches up, as more of the so-called miracle drug has come. Even as cases continue to ride helter-skelter throughout, there are clouds portending of silver lining.
Right off, the heightened restrictions imposed in the last two weeks in the MM + 4 area seems to have worked. Relegated in the level of quarantine classification — down to MGCQ, then now to GCQ — the effort is paying off. Cases are sliding down, hospital systems are back in the groove, the health workers are in a new-found strength, energized by nothing but will power, and a refusal to slacken off.
About the only wrinkle in this week’s case tally is the apparent transference of rising cases to places elsewhere, much more so in places unheard of — the Bicol region, the Visayas, and Mindanao, principally the Davao region. So what happened, the community transmissions erupting in the metro area just flew out of the capital region and landed somewhere else?
Notably, our situation in this part of the country appears to be holding fort. Stabilizing, in a manner of speaking. Cases are hovering in double digits — but not in an alarming scale to call in the troops. Still very manageable, as our own Mayor Benjie lets it out at the slightest hint of inquisitive queries.
From where we view things, more from out there at the grassroots, it’s all because of the surging spirit. Not of the variants hovering here and there. But, this time the resurgence is characteristically of confidence, of faith, of hardening belief that getting past the virus can only take place by getting jabbed.
For months now, there have been moments of deep anxiety that getting vaccinated seems to be a last resort, what with the waiting game of the early weeks. For a while there, the visibly small crowds jamming the vax sites seem to only indicate a reluctance, a resistance, a rejection in the medical might of a covid vaccine.
But as the days and weeks wore on, the crowds began to bolster in strength, dissipating the uncertainties unsettling the climes. So what if there’s only one branded vax? Cast it out to the wind, this vaccine remains the best vaccine, simply because it’s the only one available.
For more than a year, we’ve all labored together in a mighty push to get the virus slain, once and for all. Without the vaccines, we pushed ahead, restraining all liberalities as a free people, to make things work, to prove to all and sundry that as Filipinos we’re made of sterner stuff.
For one thing, there’s our resilience as a people, demonstrated amply by the ups and downs of a health threat that has gripped the country far too long. For another, there’s the continuing battle being waged virtually on all fronts, showcasing a government all-out in response to the raging epidemic. Yet another, there’s the delicate balance everyone seems well cognizant, the health and safety needs versus the economic.
Remember how the pandemic has wrought much of the nation’s capital, including the adjacent provinces, under the stranglehold of the deadly virus. Cases surged up beyond the rooftops even eclipsing the average tally of July-August 2020, when the virus was hitting practically at will, an unseen enemy unlike any other, inflicting its lethal grip anytime, anywhere.
But now, the proverbial light at tunnel’s end seems within reach, without having to go through yet another bout with restrictions that have checked mobility and activity of every sort, at the expense of emasculated businesses, of disappearing jobs, and even of lost livelihood means.
All it really takes is a cohesive, seamless, collaborative endeavor unreliant on individual interests. It means you and I and the rest of us pooling it out for a huge push forward. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going? That’s what we did for close to 15 months, toughening ourselves for the hard, harrowing strife.
To be sure, while waging this excruciating war with an enemy unseen and hardly detected, there were problems that needed pinpoint precision. Problems ranging from supply to logistics to freezing equipment in the course of delivery have been hounding the vaccination effort, no doubt engendered by a reliance on what the global drug makers can apportion.
Admittedly, when pitted with the wherewithal of the rich countries, pitiful us can only beg on our knees, for the sought after vax to come our way. Indeed, much of the supply has been practically held in countries of origin, purposely to keep their target people jabbed in their arms.
Herd immunity down the road? Experts are of the scientific view that at the glacial pace the vaccination program is having, that road may well be too far off to be within sight this year.
Surely, we ought to know that It takes about 300,000 daily jabs starting June all the way to December to hit the target goal of inoculating 70% of the nation’s population. Midway this June, we’re only jabbing 5 million arms for the first dose, and 2.5 million for the second.
Indeed, as a people, we’ve shown tenacity of purpose, strength of character, and valor in combat. And yes, hopeful amid the usual storms in life, man-made or nature-wrought. Again, nothing like the competitive spirit in us to raise the Filipino flag out there with pride. Dapat Angat, dapat Ingat, dapat isang Pangkat, ang lahing Pilipino!”
