Metro Manila Community Quarantine - Day 254
The weekly Presidential update/telecast meeting is ongoing as I write this blog post. I never watch these things live anymore, but I will read the transcripts and other updates when I have the time. It's easier to wait for these things to finish so one can all the news at once as opposed to riding the emotional rollercoaster line by line.
For the most part, the rate of COVID-19 infections in the country has slowed to some degree with the daily count not exceeding 2,000 new cases for almost 2 weeks now. This still isn't great, but at least it feels like the numbers are at a more manageable level than before - relatively speaking, anyway.
In our specific area, Barangay Fort Bonifacio seems to have picked up a few new cases as of late, totally ruining a 12-day 0 cases streak. We now have at least 5 active cases being monitors and one can only hope that the proper contract tracing work has been done to determine who may have come in contact with these cases to minimize further spread.
I had given up on the Red Cross contact tracing app some time ago given (1) how few people seemed to be using it in BGC and (2) what a resource hog the app was. I know using it was for the greater good, but it was evident that they were not hitting the critical mass of users needed to make the app viably useful. There are other "official" contact tracing apps out there although none of them seem to talk to one another and most business establishments rely on open Google Sheets and other free solutions.
The ongoing nature of this disease really brings into question what's next and whether or not it's safe enough to consider meeting friends more often, even on a limited basis. We've been very carefully evaluating the risks of seeing family, going out to the mall, and other social activities time and time again throughout this quarantine and it still remains quite scary. More than the disease, it's the lack of reasonable or at least reassuring government action only helps to fuel the uncertainty that at times borders on paranoia.
More and more, it seems we just need to accept that our lockdown status quo isn't going to change anytime soon and Christmas and other holidays will require some very creative planning in order to keep them feeling festive without risking our health and the health of others.
Comments
Post a Comment