Social distancing, which my colleagues in the discipline suggested should be referred to as “interpersonal physical distancing” as a more appropriate term, is actually of various forms based in what the government directs people to do amid the CoViD-19 pandemic.
It includes keeping a considerable physical distance when in a group, as well as of avoiding social gatherings, religious services, unnecessary travels, and so on.
The ultimate goal is to prevent the massive spread of the virus with the steadily increasing number of those infected.
Data show that transmission is higher in places where more people converged.
In the Philippines, the majority of the confirmed cases of infected persons are residents of the National Capital Region based on Case Bulletin No. 004 issued March 18 by the Department of Health.
The report showed 202 cases, seven recoveries, and 17 deaths. The number of positive cases is expected to rise fast through community transmission when the movement and face-to-face interaction of people are not strictly controlled.
In Negros Oriental, on the same date and based on the new classification of CoViD-19, the Provincial Health Office reported there were 186 cases who suffered from influenza-like illness, and one with a severe acute respiratory infection.
Incidentally, the report does not indicate the number of positive cases for consistency of comparison. Are these cases yet suspects?
Anyway, earlier on March 15, one positive case of CoViD-19 admitted in a private hospital in Dumaguete City, who had comorbidity, has expired. This case had caused worries to many residents of the Province.
Now, the entire country is under a state of calamity, allowing local government units to speedily make use of all their resources to implement their plans and procure things needed to address problems due to the CoViD-19 pandemic.
The President imposed the enhanced community quarantine or lockdown of the entire Luzon Island, and a curfew was enforced to ensure that people are confined to limited places to prevent the extensive transmission of the virus.
These measures are now implemented also in Negros Island and other neighboring islands in the Visayas.
Fighting CoViD-19 is not only a war against an “invisible” enemy, and it is not a task that is solely for government officials and agencies to win.
This fight is of everyone because everyone could be affected. Anyone becomes a suspect as a potential carrier of the virus if the required home quarantine is not seriously followed.
There are already asymptomatic cases that can infect anyone, and that is the primary reason why distancing has to be strictly practiced.
As one protects oneself, it is an act of safeguarding loved ones and the entire community as well.
The CoViD-19 is a disaster that has no borders.
The other scenario out of the CoViD-12 disaster is the class-differentiated impact that exposes more the glaring social inequality in this country.
There are lessons to learn from these observed inequalities so that the efforts how to sensitively handle this type of disaster which spares no one can be improved.
Note that even the rich and famous personalities in politics and entertainment have reportedly been infected. But they did receive privileged treatment, as many commented, perhaps due to their position and capacity to pay for the test that is not yet available to many. Such illustrates inequality in access to health services.
The imposition of lockdown, quarantine, and curfew may save many people from the viral transmission and possibly death; however, the burdens are felt more by the poor people who have to work day and night of making a living–of fighting poverty and overcoming hunger.
While the rich were on panic-buying of alcohol, hand sanitizers, face masks, and other basic needs when news broke out about increasing confirmed cases and deaths of CoViD-19 patients, the poor must have only been panicking because they cannot afford to buy all those necessities to protect themselves from infection. That is inequality in access to basic needs.
Moreover, while the regular employees opted to work from home, or enjoyed a paid work leave, the workers under a “no work-no pay” scheme have to struggle in commuting to their workplaces amid the hazard of infection.
Without enough savings, they have to go out and earn so they could buy food and the other needs for their families.
In Metro Manila, the poor daily wage workers have to walk far distances, because public transportation was already restricted, to be in their workplaces on time, for fear of losing their jobs.
The same is true with public transport drivers who cannot go out for fear of apprehension because only private vehicles are allowed.
Income loss must be worst among those in the informal economy. These are examples of inequality in work.
Distancing is difficult for large households cramped in small houses located in congested and marginal communities in big cities.
If any single member of a household in this condition gets infected, the rest of the family would most likely be affected, and which can extend to the neighbors living very close by, until the entire community is infected.
This situation is linked to the insistence of some household members to go out to work, even without enough protective gear and supplies which are hard to secure, and perhaps more expensive now.
Inter-household transmission is already feared to be happening in some congested barangays in Metro Manila. This is inequality in modest housing.
To calm down the poor after a day of the imposition of enhanced community quarantine and curfew in Metro Manila, various government agencies had assured that the Inter-agency Task Force on CoViD-19 would look over the welfare of the drastically affected households and communities.
Workers residing outside of Metro Manila, or those from outside of particular cities are allowed to enter and leave if they have the appropriate work documents and identification cards.
In particular, to ease the burden of the average daily wage earners, the government called upon the private employers to release in advance their pay or their 13th-month bonuses, and for big businesses to assist the small and medium enterprises to prevent them from closing down.
These are just some of the many creative ways how the willing privileged sector could help save many, and bridge the gap of social inequality in these difficult time.
And out of their corporate social responsibility, there are already big business companies that donated millions of pesos and equipment to health institutions to fight COVID-19.
They have also called for more companies to do the same to provide the basic needs of poor households whose livelihoods are affected by the restrictions of travels and movements.
This initiative is highly needed to reinforce the dwindling resources of the government at different levels as the period of community quarantine will not yet be lifted given the uncertainty when we are able to flatten the curve in the transmission of CoViD-19 in the country.
So while class-differentiated impacts of the disaster become more glaring, this crisis is also the time when cooperative efforts are emerging, and should be praised, because the fate of a few infected people who are less privileged actually determines the survival of the many, particularly those who are more privileged to stay at home for fear of infection.
And instead of blaming the poor why they cannot stay home, there must be local initiatives to assist the government in feeding them in the meantime so they will not have to leave their homes to earn some for their food.
What a government spokesperson said that “no one dies of hunger” in reality is indeed not true.
Rather, what has shown to be real and true is that one is willing to die to feed a hungry family in times of uncertainty.
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Author’s email: [email protected]