By: Victor Avecilla
Knowing the Filipino penchant for going around rules and regulations, police authorities and local government officials should expect many people to hold Christmas parties on the sly.
Dr. Maria Rosario S. Vergeire warns there will be a spike in the number of new coronavirus cases in the country if Filipinos insist on holding Christmas parties and similar gatherings where social distancing and other health protocols will be likely breached. According to Vergeire, the spike will be a matter of “when” and not one of “if.”
With no vaccines in town right now and in the next four months or so, and with the ones available elsewhere in the world still in its “experimental” stage, Vergeire’s warning should be enough to scare the wits out of those who really value their lives.
Sure, what is Christmas without family gatherings and similar festivities? Well, whether we like it or not, the deadly Covid-19 disease is still very much around, and adjustments to Christmas traditions have to be made. It’s either that, or the worst-case scenario of crowded hospitals, summary burials, and yes, the return of very strict quarantine regulations that altered our universe.
After all the blood, sweat, tears, time and money spent during the past 10 months fighting Covid-19, the choice between avoiding mass gatherings even in the name of the yuletide season, or the nation going back to square one circa March 2020 — is a no brainer.
For almost a year already, we’ve undergone so much sorrow, sacrifice and inconvenience, got used to the so-called “new normal,” and adjusted our lifestyles in unprecedented ways and means. What’s another two weeks of the same restrictions in the interest of public health and public safety?
If the price of two weeks of putting down our guard during the yuletide season is a spike in new coronavirus cases in the coming new year, that price tag is too dear to pay. From both a practical and economic perspective, that price is too high, sinful even, to pay.
Let’s follow Dr. Vergeire. In a way, her face and her voice on television served as our trickle of hope during the very depressing summer of 2020. We believed her before, so it certainly won’t hurt to believe her today.
Many of us, however, have reason to be pessimistic. Even when the Christmas season was still about two months away, there have been many confirmed reports of people disobeying health protocols and, in the process, compromising public health and public safety.
In shopping malls lately, one will readily see groups of people walking around in such close proximity as if there was no pandemic. Restaurant patrons behave as if things were back to normal.
Beginning two weeks ago, many people I know, myself included, have been receiving invitations to clandestine parties and get-togethers where quarantine restrictions grind to a halt. As Christmas Day and the end of the year get closer, more of those invitations can be expected.
I enjoy going to parties, but because I want to live long enough to attend as many festive gatherings as I can, I have decided against accepting, in the meanwhile at least, invitations to those powder kegs for danger masquerading as small, intimate parties.
Knowing the Filipino penchant for going around rules and regulations, police authorities and local government officials should expect many people to hold Christmas parties on the sly.
Since it may be difficult for the authorities to monitor private residences, they should keep a watchful eye instead on condominiums and high rises where an unusual volume of guests can be easily detected at the lobby.
Condominiums and high rises are prone to the unbridled spread of the coronavirus because of the sheer volume of people living and working in those places daily.
The slightest plan of anybody to hold any festivity in violation of health protocols must be nipped in the bud, with violators taken to the police station if necessary.
Barangay authorities should keep track of what takes place in their respective jurisdictions during these times when the temptation to party with friends and family may be too strong to resist.
We cannot afford to let the spike in new Covid-19 cases Undersecretary Vergeire is warning us about become a reality. There is simply too much at stake.