COVID-19 Pandemic: The 30-Day Quarantine

Day 32

The 30-day quarantine was extended to until 30 April 2020. On this day, there were 1.95 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 of which 126,000 had died - a mortality rate of 6.45%.

Day 21

Background

What is like being locked down inside a community quarantine? It's first for me, and perhaps to everyone else. How would one see life then – seriously? Hopefully? Angrily?

When dengue epidemic hit the Philippines in 2019, it caused more than 46,000 cases with 622 deaths in 7 months. No town or city was quarantined for the reason that dengue was not communicable from human to human.

In the case of COVID-19, there are only 307 cases as of this writing, yet the whole Luzon and parts of Visayas and Mindanao are under quarantine. With dengue, it takes one mosquito bite to get sick. With COVID-19, infection is exponential.

In 1906, Mary Mallon did not know, that she was a carrier of typhoid bacteria. Wherever she cooked, people near her would develop typhoid fever. She had no symptoms, thus she never believed that she was infected. To stop her from infecting people, she was quarantined for 3 years, then another for 23 years until her death in 1938.

COVID-19 can be symptomatic or asymptomatic. For that reason, the person next to you can be a carrier even if he or she is not showing any symptoms. Worse, he or she can leave traces of the coronavirus wherever he or she goes.

Being a new type of virus, there is no cure yet to kill COVID-19. Thus, the only way to stop the further spread of this coronavirus is to contain the people inside a quarantine.

As of 21 March, there are 266,073 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease from 180 countries; 11,184 of the patients had died. (Ref: WHO)

Before the Quarantine

In his speech, WHO Director-General said that "COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic."

Not knowing what could happen next, the thought of pandemic was scary. Then, it happened.

On the 12th, Pres Duterte placed Metro Manila under community quarantine for 30 days beginning 15 March.

On the 13th, my neighborhood was quiet. It felt like Black Saturday. Makati recorded 12 cases diagnosed with COVID-19 plus 6 patients confined at the Makati Medical Center.

 On 14 March, Philippines recorded 98 cases of patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

I was anxious how it could be like to be community-quarantined. I felt is first effect when my parish announced that there'd be no celebration of Mass on Sundays at the church. Instead, parishioners could watch it via live streaming on Facebook.

The night before the quarantine, I heard Mass online.

Day 1 (March 15)

Sunday. I woke up early to hear Mass once again via live streaming. There were times I felt lazy going to Mass; but today, I hungered for it. It felt like war as if to express one's faith is prohibited, therefore, must be done in secret.

Lent in the Philippines is a big observance. This year, on the 400th year of our parish church, the old tradition that we look forward to every Lent and Holy Week will not be observed.

On this day, confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 140 with 12 recorded deaths.

Day 2 (March 16)

DOH reported first case of Filipino having recovered from COVID-19. The government announced that the entire Luzon, not just Metro Manila, would be under quarantine.

Day 3 (March 17)

The  entire Philippines is now under a state of calamity for 6 months per presidential proclamation 929. 

Today, out of 142 COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, 4 had recovered. Sadly, two died today, and 45 new cases were reported bringing COVID-19 cases to 187.

Paranoia is not good. Sometimes, without your intention, you could hurt someone's feelings. 

PAG-IBIG Fund requested my nephew to continue reporting for work, making him vulnerable to the virus. With that, I forbid him to stop going to our house. There are 4 elderly at home; one of them is seriously ill. Perhaps, he couldn't see the risk so I had to be blunt to make him realize the situation. Saying so made me feel uncomfortable. My words, however, were not in vain because the President tonight totally forbid everyone in Luzon to going to work.

Under the enhanced community quarantine, the president declared that there should be no work at all both in the private and government sectors, exempting the frontliners and those whose work are related to food and medicine. Any one who violates the quarantine can be arrested.

Indeed, it feels like martial law except that your fear roots from a pandemic.

Day 4 (March 18)

Being at home under community quarantine makes you feel you're under a house arrest. COVID-19 is a communist. You're free, yet you are not allowed to do things you could normally do. You cannot just go anywhere. The only good excuse to going out is to buy food and you have to walk alone. 

At night, the curfew makes the evening quiet and peaceful. No loud videokes; no noisy groups feasting on liquor in the streets; no fast noisy string of vehicles.

DOH reported a total of 202 COVID-19 cases, 17 deaths, 7 recoveries. GMA News announced that it was signing off. Now what?

Day 5 (March 19)

It is the feast of St Joseph, patron of  peaceful deaths. I opened my Twitter and read 475 COVID-19 deaths in Italy. I don't know what to pray today. There are no tears in my eyes, but the sadness is there. I'd like to think and feel positive but the anxiety is strong as to what could become of us in the next few days.

On a positive side, WHO says to avoid taking ibuprofen to ease COVID-19 symptoms.

Day 6 (March 20)

Day 7 (March 21)

A video about the current situation in Italy just disturbed me. I hope and I pray that this degree of situation does not reach our situation here in the Philippines.

Day 8 (March 22)

Sunday. Being quarantined could be tiring. In a way, seeing the same thing everyday, psychologically, could be tiring. Boredom starts to set in no matter how you keep yourself busy.

Woke up late because I was very tired. After hearing Mass online, i felt I needed something to boost my mind. Good thing, GMA and UST came up with an online no-contact live entertainment on Facebook tagged #BuongPusoParaSaPilipino.

To further boost my system, I listened to Greatest Hits of the 60s.

A Message That Moved The Nation

After reading Dr Greg Macasaet's farewell message, I had no words to describe how I felt for him and the rest of medical frontliners. Here I quote, Bishop David's prayer request and message.

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A message from Bishop Pablo Virgilio David on the death of Dr. Greg Macasaet :
“CALLING FOR A WHOLE WEB OF PRAYER WARRIORS
Yesterday, I received a text message from a friend of the family of Dr. Greg Macasaet, an anesthesiologist and a dedicated frontliner in the fight against COVID19. Apparently, as they attended to patients in the emergency room of a hospital, Dr. Greg and his wife (who is also an anesthesiologist) both got infected by the virus they were fighting. They submitted themselves to a COVID19 testing and both came out positive. But between the two of them, Dr. Greg appeared to have been more severely affected by the disease. Soon he had to be put in the ICU because he developed a pneumonia and was beginning to have a shortness of breath.
Dr. Greg continued to communicate with his family and friends using his cellphone, making calls and text messages. When he started to realize how serious his condition was, he sent the following text message yesterday:

“Good evening, my beloved brethren ! The turn of events is just no longer going in my favor. The feeling you get, aside from extreme pains all over, difficulty of breathing and as if all life is being sucked from your body ! They will be putting cutdown lines and central tubes on me anytime soon ! If they intubate me and place me on ventilator, then the game is almost over ! If Ateng (referring to his wife) survives, then my wish for her and Raymond (his son who is with autism) for a long and happy life will bear fruition ! Raymond however needs financial and emotional care for the rest of his life ! Something I may no longer be able to fulfill! It Is my fervent hope that all of you may assist the rest of my Family in our most difficult times!”
I immediately felt from Dr. Greg’s text message that the greater pain he was suffering was the thought that, if he and his wife do not survive this virus, nobody might look after their son. But what gave me greater pain as a bishop was that part in the message of the family’s friend that said, “Dr. Macasaet wants to receive the last rites but doctors won’t allow anyone go near him. The family requests for words of encouragement, Bishop. Thank you po.” Then he gave me the cell phone number of Dr. Greg.
I immediately tried dialing Dr. Greg’s phone, to no avail. Soon, the friend sent a follow up message saying that Dr. Greg could not reply to his cell phone anymore because he had to be intubated already. But he gave me the cell phone number of Dr. Greg’s wife, Dr. Evalyn, also an anesthesiologist. Apparently, she had been isolated in another room because she was also infected but continued to monitor her husband by communicating with the doctors through her cell phone. I was able to get Dr. Eva on the line.

She spoke like a regular doctor when I asked how her husband was doing, using medical terms I did not quite understand. She spoke the same way when I asked how she herself was doing. She managed to get me to understand that the extent of the infection on her was at least not as serious yet as with her husband. When I said, “Would you like me to bless the two of you? I understand that even priests are not allowed in the ICU... I can give you a pray-over right now over the telephone.” Without waiting for me to finish my sentence, she answered, “Yes, yes, please do that, Father.” She was silent as I prayed over her and her husband. And she said a loud “Amen” when I concluded with a blessing. But I could sense that she was disoriented. She just kept saying “Thank you, thank you, please continue to pray for him.”

Dr. Greg died this morning at 4:00am. He was the second casualty among our frontliners. Just a day before Dr. Greg was intubated I read on FB the requests for prayers for the eternal repose of a young and promising cardiologist, Dr. Israel Bactol MD. Dr. Bactol also got exposed to an infected patient and quickly developed the same symptoms, was eventually intubated and... died. He was just 34 years old.
After I read the prayer request for Dr. Bactol, I had the idea of typing in the search engine of FB “frontliner doctors infected with COVID19”. The search led me to several posts, giving me a fuller list of frontliner doctors who have also been infected by COVID19, and for whom urgent requests for prayer are being passed around by their fellow frontliners.
Aside from Dr. Bactol and Dr. Macasaet, there were ten others in the list—names of very well known doctors, who are presently putting their own lives on the line as frontliners in the fight against COVID19: Dr. Raul Jara, also cardiologist, who is now intubated and hooked to ventilator, Dr. Sally Gatchalian, President of PPS (I googled the acronym and found out that it means Philippine Pediatricians’ Society), Dr. Francis Dimalanta, pediatrician, Dr. Marie Valbuena, with progressing pneumonia and now intubated in the ICU, Dr. Kiko Lukban, Dr. Tess Castro, Dr. Relito Saquilayan who was also COVID positive but happily now improving, Dr. Gerard Goco, specialized in Nuclear Medicine, also presently intubated, the well known Dr. Ayuyao, pulmonologist, who is being prepared for intubation, and of course, Dr. Greg’s own wife, Dr. Evalyn, who, along with her son Raymond, are now grieving the untimely demise of Dr. Greg.
In more normal times, doctors are usually more discreet about disclosing the medical conditions of people, considering data privacy and all that. But we are not living in normal times. You could sense panic in the desperate plea of doctors for prayers, for spiritual and moral support. You could sense that they themselves are afraid for their own families that they could also get infected and not survive this nightmare.

There is another thing that they are not saying and I wish to say it myself, “Could it be that our own doctors and nurses and other health workers in the frontline are not adequately protected from infection?” We see online what sort of protective gears doctors and nurses are made to wear in China, in Italy, in the United States. I wonder if our doctors even have decent accommodations while attending to their patients and are unable to come home because of the lockdown, or because they are afraid to infect their own family members. If even our best doctors in well-equipped private hospitals are vulnerable, I wonder what it is like in the public hospitals.
Whoever you are, if you are reading this at this very moment, would you kindly join our invisible web of prayer warriors who are at the frontline of another aspect of this fight against the COVID19–namely, the spiritual battle? No matter if you’re Muslim, or Buddhist, or Catholic, or Protestant... can you please join in praying fervently that God protect our frontliners who put their lives on the line to protect us from this devastating plague?”