After the extension of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), people panicked about how they’ll earn money for themselves and for their families. This triggered a couple of financial assistance programs from different government agencies. But would the Luzon quarantine lifting happen at the end of the month?
With that, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised all countries to not hastily lift their quarantines and lockdowns; this is because of the fact that it can lead to a lot of fatalities and positive cases.
Read more here: Fast Lockdown Lifting Could Lead to Worst Fatalities, WHO
The ECQ halted several businesses and caused the government to earn nothing. With this, the whole country was shook knowing not what to do. But based on the announcement made by our dearest President Rodrigo Duterte, once the COVID-19 antibody becomes available, people can expect a Luzon quarantine lifting to happen.
A cure for the COVID-19
In his address which was televised back on Monday night, the President said that there’s already a pharma company working to solve the problem. He said that he cannot mention the name of the company but they’re in the works of developing an antibody.
I cannot mention the pharmaceutical giants. But one of them has developed an antibody. The antibody did not come from humans. They are catching up with one another. They said by May, maybe they would start to market it…If it’s already available and people are using it, I would lift it (quarantine). If you get sick, we can buy antibodies.”
Read: The Best Tips to Disinfect Yourself When You Get Home From Outside
Antibodies are the proteins that help the immune system protect itself and the body from hostile external invaders. A company is in the process of making it to be available in the entire planet to stop the threat of the coronavirus.
Luzon quarantine lifting
With the end of the month nearing, people are concerned about the Luzon quarantine lifting. Some are concerned about how it will be if there’s no cure; some are afraid to go out expose without knowing who they’ll be in coming contact with.
However, President Duterte said that if there’ll be an antibody in the market, the lift for the quarantine or the lockdown will be granted. This way, we’re not aliens of the virus anymore – people can get treated.
Read: Making Your Own Hand Sanitizer? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Do It
Our access to the medicine
One big problem that we might face is that we might not be the first ones to have access to it. Given the fact that there are considerations in lifting the quarantine, we still can’t be too sure.
President Duterte said that we (the Philippines) are the last ones on the ladder because the rich ones (countries) will be the ones to get it first.
The target of the cure is to be sold somewhere around May of this year; next month. However, this is still a long-shot, and all we can do is to hope and pray that there would really be a cure for it.
Read: The DOLE Coronavirus Assistance, Can be Taken Advantage of by OFWs and Repatriated OFWs
What if the vaccine is not available by May?
Given the complexity of the virus and what it’s capable of – what if it’s not yet available? Would we expect a Luzon quarantine lifting even if that is the case? Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said that as of the moment, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) is currently in the process of discussing how this would go down.
He said that they are tying to identify certain industries and statistics as to what the case would be; who would be allowed to work, and so on.
We will identify what industries, how many percentage of workers or the work force; transport sector, what we will do; and all of these other factors that we will allow to slowly operate, then we will set very strict and stringent guidelines on what the new normal is.”
Read: 55 COVID-19 Referral Hospitals, Set by the Government
However, Nograles iterated that the current things that we are doing now would absolutely be a part of the norm. Things like washing of hands, wearing of face masks, refraining from close interactions with people, and the like.
The wearing of mask, physical and social distancing, washing and personal hygiene, all of these will be part of the new normal. So, that is still in the process of being finalized.”
What do you think about the idea of the Luzon quarantine lifting at the end of the month? Could this be safe for all of us especially with the fact that our enemy is unseen? Or would we rather choose another period of a lockdown just to be safe?
Source/s: The Philippine Star | The Philippine Daily Inquirer
