Where we’re at
This summer vacation is unlike any the students, or any of us non-students for that matter, of this country have ever had in recent history. No carefree trips to the beach, meet-ups with friends just for fun or malling to keep cool and entertained. Midday Wednesday, as if to prove an already proven point, the skies turned dark and gloomy and it poured.
I know it’s already June, not strictly a summer month by Philippine standards but still considered “summer vacation” time for many schools in the country that have transitioned or are transitioning to an August start to the new school year. Did summer just pass me by without my noticing it? Well, that’s not entirely true. It has been scorching hot on quite a number of days during these home quarantine months. I guess it’s more that I had been focusing on adjusting to the new normal for me to pay attention to the changing of the seasons. Apart from the weather, what else has changed since we all began this unprecedented journey?
In certain cities around the world, including where I currently call home, travel restrictions, stay-at-home directives and business office hours are slightly easing and opening up.
Two realities front and center are that there are still active COVID-19 cases around the world and there is still no vaccine.
According to the WHO (World Health Organization) COVID-19 dashboard as of 12 June, there have been 7,410,510 confirmed cases around the world and 418,294 deaths. Data from statista.com shows that over 3.8 million people have recovered from the disease.
Here at home, the Department of Health’s COVID-19 tracker shows 24,787 total cases nationwide, 1,052 deaths of confirmed cases and 5,454 recoveries as of 12 June.
The precautions we were implored to follow at the start of the pandemic remain to be our best safeguards in minimizing our risk of getting the dreaded disease.
Measures such as social distancing, washing of hands of ten and correctly, wearing of face masks in public places and avoiding non-essential trips out of one’s home. We have learnt and lived these safety and standard operating procedures for the past months. We have developed good practices and habits slowly but surely.
It is up to us not to unlearn them as restrictions ease across domestic and international borders. We play a crucial part in determining where we will find ourselves
tomorrow.
“It
is up to us not to unlearn them as restrictions ease across domestic and international borders.
“Did summer just pass me by without my noticing it? Well, that’s not entirely true.