How Pandemic Change Everything

SARS-CoV-2 or also known as COVID-19, is a contagious disease and also deadly. COVID-19 affects different people in different ways. Most infected people will develop mild to moderate illness and recover without hospitalization. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the first human cases of COVID-19, were first reported by officials in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019. Right now, there’s no vaccine that is available to stop the virus, however, government officials are doing their best to reducing the spread of the virus.

COVID-19 is one of the The first policy response of the Philippine government happen on February 2 2020, and that was the imposing of selective quarantine for the returning OFW. Followed by the declaration of state of national on March 8 ,2020. Then on March 13,2020, a quarantine was announced. At first it was limited only to the National Capital Region, however due to the increasing cases of transmission of the disease, on March 17, 2020, the President implemented the Enhance Community Quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon. Then President Duterte signed the Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan To Heal as One Act (BAHO) on March 24,2020. The ECQ expired on April 14, however it was extended until April 30.

Supposedly, the ECQ should had an effect of reducing the estimated R0 statistics to less than 1.0, in which they succeeded to some provinces. However, some provinces had a R0 estimates greater than 1.0. The government decision to implement the ECQ was a great idea, it didn’t stop the spread of the COVID-19 but it helped in keeping the spread of the disease in control. I think the reason why failed to reduce the R0 lower than 1.0 to some provinces was because of lack discipline of the people that are living in the area, or maybe government officials in that area failed to monitors their area.. The implementation of the ECQ had a positive effect for preventing the further spread of the disease, however, it has a negative effect in our economy.

Regarding about the reopening the country for business, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases(IATF) recommend that the ECQ will be change to General Community Quarantine(GCQ) is a good idea because it limits the number or age of people who can go to public places and also limit he business that are able to reopen. Reopening the whole country to business in one go is a risky move, because it can cause a new wave for the spread of the COVID-19. To reveal the true extent of the infections and the proportion of asymptomatic carriers, the science department recommended mass testing, which is good because not only it can help identify people were infected, we can also use it to track the people that they had contacted directly.

Since there is still no vaccine available at the mean time, the only way we can deal with this pandemic is by following the rules and regulations given by the government. Avoid going outside, and always wear facemask and faceshield. Our government is doing their best to make the COVID-19 vanish, and we also have to do our best to help them.

We are facing this problem longer than we expected,Now that some pharmautical companies made vaccine,I am hoping that this will help lessen the transmission of the disease.Keep Safe Everyone.