By Atty. Egay Uy
CAGAYAN de Oro is again placed under the modified enhanced community quarantine level for the next fifteen days. This, after the city and its constituents, enjoyed for a long while the more open and tolerant modified general community quarantine.
The IATF has good reasons for doing so. This national task force, when deciding under what quarantine level an LGU should be placed, checks past data on at least three factors, i.e., healthcare utilization, average daily attack rate, and the two-week growth rate of Covid-19 positive cases.
For the city, the numbers that go into these three factors, while they show some promising trends, appear to need more serious cooperation from the public. By public, I mean everybody in the city.
We must not forget that the dreaded coronavirus is indifferent to the quarantine level. Rather, its presence around us depends on everybody’s response to the constant call of the government to abide by regulations and to consistently observe the easily-doable non-pharmaceutical interventions, the often-repeated reminders on the use of face masks, and shield, disinfection of hands, and observance of physical distancing.
I have to also keep on repeating that it is best to comply with regulations for the right reasons, not for fear of apprehension. Why so? Well, the reason is obvious.
People who comply with regulations because of the presence of apprehending officers will always forget regulations and health protocols when the apprehending officer is no longer around. On the other hand, people who comply because they know the reasons for these regulations will always be conscious of the consequences should they fail to be consistent, i.e., Covid-19 infection. Failure to comply may be equated to viral infection and I know we do not want this.
It is true and even undebatable that an MECQ level somehow affects the lives of many ― business operators, wage earners, seniors, and almost everybody else. But we have to also recognize and accept the fact that this quarantine level is the result of our collective response to the call of government on how to combat the coronavirus.
Our collective behavior is practically sending a message to the national policymakers to treat us and our community in such a way that we ourselves may find difficult.
So, we have a difficult decision to make. We have four choices in a multiple choice test ― ECQ, MECQ, GCQ or MGCQ.
It’s upon us.
