We rise
Manila, 4 April - There’s an Easter pun to be made somewhere, about a common thing that Jesus and the country’s COVID-19 case count share, but it gets less and less funny in my head the more I run it, so maybe I won’t make it.
But over the past two weeks, I’d been tracking the new cases, and I’d like to note here that we went from 7,999 to 10,000, to a whopping 15,000, Friday to Friday to Good Friday. It’s ridiculous.
BREAKING: DOH reports 15,310 new cases today, a new record-high ‼️
— Edson (@EdsonCGuido) April 2, 2021
Active cases (now more than 150,000) have reached a new record-high for the 4th straight day ⚠️
3,709 case backlogs from COVIDKaya were included today.
Seven labs were not able to submit data. pic.twitter.com/EKwTUFHRVi
They say the week’s count is likely the result of infections from two weeks prior, and at the time we were already averaging +5k new cases a day.
I remember how early this year, many were hopeful the Metro could ease into the least restrictive MGCQ, further reopening the economy and reviving businesses.
Our gym restarted their automatic charges at the start of February, ever optimistic, after half a year or so of giving us the run-around as to how to cancel our memberships ahead of our anniversary and despite repeated emails that we are not looking at going back to the gym anytime soon, given the risk. To illustrate just how dangerous gyms are: Quezon City ordered a strict lockdown in mid-March, after a serious outbreak in one of the gyms in the city. That gyms were even reopened in the first place is NUTS.
The DTI even went so far as saying cinemas could reopen in early March, too - I shudder to think how much worse this case count would have been, had cinema operators themselves not thought to delay it.
The national government told LGUs it was up to them if they’d still like to quarantine tourists and made COVID tests optional. With practically nonexistent contact tracing, encouraging travel was a surefire way of ensuring extensive community transmission.
Contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong: Contact tracing is deteriorating.
— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) March 30, 2021
From 1:7 ratio of contact tracing in February, it fell to 1:3 this March. This means less people are being traced.
"Technically, wala pong contact-tracing diyan," says Magalong. pic.twitter.com/EKrDt2S8R7
If I understand it right: The government encouraged opening the economy without ensuring that there is a system in place that would be able to handle its consequences. It had more than a year to ramp-up its testing capacity, train more contact tracers, and boost the hospital system. It had more than a year to prepare the country for the vaccine rollout.
Yet here we are, a year later: A team full of generals and nothing to show for it.
A brief note on Holy Week
This year’s Holy Week commemoration is expectedly same as last year’s, in that we’re stuck inside despite the heat. We miss the beach–it’s been definitely more than a year since we were anywhere near the sea. Sucks that it seems like we’re not going anywhere soon, sea or no.
Anyway: Some recent things we watched–
- Aquaman (HBO Go) - Speaking of the sea.
- Attack on Titan (Netflix) - Just one word for it, because we don’t want to accidentally give out spoilers: REALLY???
- My Dad wrote a Porno (HBO Go) - This is hilarious. If you’re a fan of the podcast, definitely worth a go.
- The Heat (Netflix) - Caught this before it was taken out of Netflix. What a classic.
- Three Identical Strangers (Netflix). This was such a ride. The twists and turns had us yelling “WHAT??” at the TV the entire time.
Some housekeeping
No action needed from your end, but I’d just like to let you know I have moved the backend of this newsletter from Substack to Buttondown–this change should not have any material effect on your experience, as I’ve imported all the archives and the entire list here.
Why move? One could say that the issue doesn’t directly concern me, as I’m not operating a paid newsletter, but I’ve been tracking concerns over Substack Pro, and how through it, Substack is funding writers who spew transphobic material on the platform. I cannot stand by that. The Rec Center explains it better in their end note here.
Meantime, I think Buttondown offers a great platform that will help me concentrate on writing, minus the frills. It reminds me of websites of yore, which I think is great, too. I look forward to writing more from this issue onward.
ALSO: Can you believe I’ve written 199 of these things since 2018! NUTS.
That’s it for now. Hope you had a restful break ♥
XO,
K