Worried for the next days to come

As we all know, coronavirus is still around in every corner of our planet. With thousands of still being infected everyday we should never be complacent with following all the health protocols. We should keep on doing the things we got used to do for almost two years now, such as washing our hands frequently, maintaining social distancing and most of all wearing face masks when going out.

Just because the daily cases are slowly going down in our country we should never be complacent with it. If we are going to check some of daily cases most specially in the US their number surge up. Just a little disclaimer I am not an expert regarding this, but last Christmas day, I got to talk to some of my husband’s relatives who were frontliners. My husband’s cousin is a public nurse as well as his wife. Both of them were assigned in health centers located in the city of Manila. But during the early pandemic situation, all health centers were closed so both of them, were assigned at the public hospitals where covid patients were taken.

They share some of their experiences and their everyday life all throughout the pandemic times. I remember the news about Sta. Ana hospital where a lot of resident nurses were infected with the virus. Ate Tetet the wife of Kuya Junjun who is my husband’s cousin was assigned there due to lack of nurses who were quarantined at the same time. She told us it was really scary that time, she had no choice but to do her responsibilities as a public nurse. It was very hard and exhausted, but for the sake of their sworn duty to the country they didn’t give up nor quit. Although according to her some of their colleagues didn’t make it until the end because they end up resigning from their post.

Now going back to why I am worried this time because, right now, my husband Anthony is in the US. As we all know from the recent news the daily covid cases there are going upward. And what I am concerned about is that there was an outbreak within the cruise ships. Just a week ago, one of the biggest cruise ship today, which is the Symphony of the seas recorded 55 cases of covid positive patients. Because a lot of of crew members were close contacts with the positive patients, most of them were quarantined, thus making their manpower weak. My brother in law Julius was transferred to that ship, (Symphony of the Seas) just days before Christmas. Anthony was hoping he could be with his brother on this celebration because at least even though they were away from us, there’s a close family beside him. Well, we can’t really control what’s gonna happened next.

In all fairness, the health protocols inside the cruise ship is strictly implemented. In the early weeks of this month, Anthony felt some symptoms of the virus, dry cough and sore throat. They were advised to report any symptoms they felt immediately at the medical team so that they can assist them. Once you reported it, you’ll be isolated from work and be quarantined until they got the result of your swab test, once it is negative, you’ll be advised to get back to work. Anthony was quarantined for two days because he got negative result from his swab test.

On the other hand, once you were a close contact to a positive patient, you’ll be quarantined for the next 14 days. My brother in law, Julius has been isolated twice already. It was actually a nice way to relax but a little boring because you have to stay inside your room for the next 14 days. The good catch is that you’ll still be receiving your salary while on quarantined. Right now, Julius contacted a positive patient again for the third time in the new ship and began his isolation just this day. We were actually teasing him while we were talking to him regarding his recent situation. Although we know it isn’t funny because he might be infected one of this day, but at least we can make him laugh and not to think too much of the situation. I know he will eventually get well after the quarantine session is over.

I can’t help but to be worried again because, today as I looked at the Department of Health twitter account the cases is starting to go up. I hope even though we are allowed to go outside please don’t forget to follow the healthy measures in order for us to not get infected. Keep in mind as long as the virus lives we aren’t safe from it. Let’s just hope that this virus will go away as the new year begins next week.

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Thanks for reading my short article for today. I hope everyone is still following the health protocols until today. Remember we’re not only helping and protecting the frontliners but also our loved ones as well. Have a good day to all.

Lead image from Unsplash