The fight is still on

The fight is still on

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It was February this year when we first heard of CoViD-19 in our Province, and the very first in our country, brought by a Chinese national.

From that day on, our lives changed. Businesses shut down, provincial borders closed, suddenly Negros was a ghost town with only a handful of people seen in the streets.

Some people wouldn’t accept the real threat of CoViD-19 at first, included amongst them were the leaders and government officials.

Doctors had to send a wake-up call. It has been a long and difficult road that ultimately led to the enhanced community quarantine.

Donations flooded, calamity funds were released, and the social amelioration program amounting to P200 billion is being distributed since March this year. This includes the cash subsidy from the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” which aims to give p5,000 to 8,000 for every poor family.

But the financial support came a little late. Not until the ECQ was almost over did the local government units start releasing the cash subsidies. People were lining up, and continue to do so, in barangay halls, breaking rules of social distancing.

As soon as the General Community Quarantine was implemented, people suddenly went out of their homes; of course, they had just received monies.

Our May 1st Labor Day, intended to be a rest day from work, looked more like payday Friday.

People may even have forgotten the fact that we still don’t have CoViD-19 test centers in Negros Oriental.

Although the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital Laboratory is applying for accreditation with the Department of Health, there will still be difficulty in procuring test kits and reagents because Cebu and Manila are still in ECQ. In the same way that rubbing alcohol remain very hard to find because of transportation barriers.

This is definitely not the time for us Negrenses and all law-implementing bodies to let our guard down. There are lesser checkpoints now in Dumaguete, and even none in some towns and cities.

We haven’t won the fight against CoViD-19 yet the figures are getting higher everyday, as more test centers open in the National Capital Region.

The fact remains that we don’t have sufficient ventilators and hospital beds to accommodate new cases, in case of resurgence.

We all need to live disciplined lives to stay alive. Protect ourselves, our loved ones, our leaders, and our frontlines by wearing masks and staying home when there is no need to go out.

Going out of our homes exposes our bodies to this unrelenting virus.

Go out if you must for work, for emergency check ups, to buy food and necessities; otherwise, stay home and enjoy the company of your family.

Stop pointing fingers especially to our leaders, even if some leaders are taking advantage of the situation for political gain. Just remember we were the ones who placed them in their positions of power.

We may have different personal views, outlooks, and solutions but we have one ultimate goal – SURVIVAL. The only barometer of success over this virus is whether we live or die of it. It’s not your barangay captain’s fault, neither the Mayor’s, not even the media’s fault, or social media’s fault. Perhaps the doctor’s fault?

But we stay out of our homes and stay awake 24/7 in hospitals to serve, sacrificing family time, exposing our loved ones to infection each time we go home to them; extending services online, providing home visits, and giving what we can even to the point of dying, to save your life, because that is our mandate as doctors, that is what God has tasked us to do.

Dr. Cristina Rosario De Guia

President
Philippine Academy of Family Physicians-Negros Oriental

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