Metro Manila Community Quarantine - Day 66
Under the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) rules, "Strict home quarantine shall be observed in all households, and the movement of all residents shall be limited to accessing essential goods and services, and for work in permitted offices or establishments...". I don't quite get why a lot of people think they can go out more now as the ECQ part of MECQ is still very much in effect.
On Friday, the Asia Times referred to the Philippine quarantine as being the "...world's longest lockdown". Given this article can only make reference to the currently scheduled end of the MECQ period at the end of the month, it's just a reminder that the quarantine is far from over.
No matter how you parse the data, the Philippines has some of the lowest COVID-19 testing rates, some of the highest positivity rates, highest fatality rates, and lowest recovery rates in the world.
Today our condo management released additional MECQ guidelines that include reminders that guests aren't allowed in the building and we're only going to consider allowing guests in is at least one month after MECQ is lifted. Even this feels optimistic since after MECQ there's still the possibility of General Community Quarantine (GCQ) before one can even consider not being under any sort of quarantine.
We all know that this is going to take a bit longer than we'd like, but that leaves things as a sort of abstract reference to the future. But every now and then the news can just bog you down and you are repeatedly reminded that we don't quite have a clear path out of this situation and we don't have a clear idea of when these quarantines and movement restrictions are going to end. And that can be pretty scary to consider.
This is not just about wanting the quarantines to be lifted. This is about wanting things to be safe again for the quarantines to be lifted and for people to go back to really living their lives. Sure, we're never quite going back to what used to be considered "normal". but there has to be some sort of a plan for how we're all going to get out of this sooner rather than later, right?
Right?
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