Day 26 of Enhanced Community Quarantine in the Philippines

How have you been since the start of the lockdown? It has been 26 days since the government declared an Luzon-wide quarantine here in the Philippines, and companies had to adjust to the new normal. The massive disruption has forced most of us to live inside our houses, and to trust that the internet connectivity will not fail us.

No one has thought that the world will change this much. A few months ago, I would not have thought of myself working from home, having meetings on Zoom or even running online classes while in the living room. Today, my office space is either inside my bedroom or in the living room.

I call my furbabies my workmates, and they would be there attending meetings too, running around while I work. I am sure that it is mostly the same for you too.

I can barely count the number of times that I went outside to buy food, and to be honest, being outside is no longer comforting. I would wear my N95 mask, and would bring a small spray bottle filled with alcohol in my pocket. Every after I touch a surface outside of the house, the next thing I’d do is to spray my hand with alcohol.

Getting to a store is no longer a problem, what used to be a traffic congested city, Manila is now free from heavy traffic, in fact you only get to see few cars on the road these days. Most cars are just parked on the street or in the garage.

Because the stores open early, my partner and I would usually drive to the grocery early too. And being near the store is an advantage because you get to stand in line early. Getting inside the grocery store can be a nightmare for the impatient though, as you’ll need to stand in a very long line, and it may take you more than an hour (no kidding) before you can even get inside a store – to ensure social distancing (1 meter apart), management would also control the number of shoppers inside the grocery. This would mean you’ll need to wait in line until a shopper is done before you can get inside.

Once you’re inside, you also need to stand in line to before you can pay, and just waiting in line would mean another hour. So yes, it took a pandemic to solve the traffic problem of the city, but it also created a new (much worse) traffic – the line in stores.

Regardless, the government has declared that it hopes to lift the lockdown by April 30th, and we are all praying that by then, the curve has flatten and there are no (or significantly fewer cases) of viral infections recorded. Until then, we will all stay at home.

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