By:

REY A. ALMOGUERRA

Admin Aide IV, MNCHS

Last year, we had to bear the incapability of the national government to protect its citizenry in the spread of the Corona Virus or infamously known as “Covid-19”. It was crippling the economy and burrowing our country to the ground. The administration has protected its benefactors and no matter how many times words deny it– actions speak louder. Business premises have to close and stop their operation. Schools need to shut down. People were advised to stay at home. It’s as if no movement should be made– in the hope that this should be prevented at any cause.

Almost every day, new cases and widespread infections have given rise to panic and left our frontliners wasted and tired. The virus did not single-handedly affect one country but every nation where people are. For nearly two years, the whole Philippines was paralyzed. The virus was unknown and without a cure. Deaths were everywhere for our loved ones, friends, and colleagues. It was something we never anticipated. We thought we lost everything.

In this pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the health sectors eventually promoted protocols that should be implemented worldwide to subdue the cases while the vaccines have been in the works.

The time has come when we are all vaccinated– in this situation, where we highly rely on vaccines donations from other wealthy nations, we barely managed to achieve herd immunity.

So where there’s great uncertainty, and the call for the reopening of the economy was getting strong. The academia, the government, and business sector enforced the skeleton workforce which allows 50% of its employees to work. Some establishments offered options to work from home which is more convenient hence minimizing the chance to contact viruses because there’s no need to travel back and forth to the workplace. Restaurants and the likes were obligated to operate in lieu of the omnipresent unemployment. When the government failed to provide food on the table, the community pantries were opened all over the country through the efforts of the locals. The new normal did not just create a new set of heroes but unfasten hearts to the needy and helpless.

But there’s this missing feeling of being able to work and live freely from any sort of constraint. Though the new normal has unfolded possibilities, nothing can beat the freedom of being able to go anywhere without to worry of contracting that would kill us. We can only be encouraged that this pandemic ends so that we can go back to our lives. Who knows what lies ahead. And as long as there is no definite end to this pandemic– we recommend everyone and each one of us to stay at home. Wash your hands all the time and observe social distancing.