Of Covid, lockdown and Periwinkles

MARCH for Davao City is a month of celebration. The climax is March 16 when this southern capital, the communication and commercial center of Mindanao and home to the Philippines President celebrates Araw ng Dabaw.

This year the city anniversary’s celebration is not only subdued it is altogether canceled. The city imposed community quarantine. By the time this piece comes out of the press however the entire Region 11 shall have been locked down, a decision arrived at by the region's political leadership. Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio was chosen by the Regional Development Council and the Regional Peace and Order Council to head the Davao Region Covid-19 Task Force.

Region 11 is composed of the provinces of Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Davao de Oro and the component cities.

Based on its initial directive Davao Region Covid-19 Task Force shall “implement the suspension of land, sea, and domestic air for 14 days, and maybe reduced to 7 days upon review of Infectious Disease Specialist Consultant. – Close all entry to Region XI at 00:01H Thursday, 19 March 2020,” the advisory read.

The order also states that those exiting the region will be allowed anytime, but, they cannot come back beginning 00:01H Thursday, 19 March 2020 and for the next 14 days. This order has been extensively announced in print, broadcast and in social media platforms. I do not know with other provinces and cities, but as I write this, we in Davao City are braced for the lockdown. Even with the initial community quarantine, nearly the entire city population followed the city directives. Where I live, in Robinsons Highlands, I can count on my left-hand fingers the number of cars that pass by.

I am now on my 6th day and I went out once and briefly to buy adult milk and repair kit for a defective kitchen faucet. Tiny periwinkle seedlings have grown underneath the mother plants and, too, I bought plastic pots and garden soil to repot them. For the next 14 days or beyond, I will watch them grow. I isolate each of the delicate plantlets away from the ever playful dogs we have.

The next 14 days is not much of a sacrifice. We can go on for another 14 days or maybe more. If this is a sacrifice at all, it is part of the solution to deprive the coronavirus of another possible host or hosts. We have seen it all. Covid-19 con spread exponentially depending on how many contacts can a Covid-positive person socialize or intermingle with. We saw it in Wuhan, Korea, France, Italy on such a big scale and in Metro Manila in a small but then an apprehensive number.

This morning the World Health organization issued an extremely important declaration: The way to control the spread of Covid-19 is to TEST, TEST and TEST then ISOLATE, ISOLATE, ISOLATE and then CONTACT TRACING.

Countries afflicted have 30 days to do these to survive from this holocaust inflicted by the invisible enemy. In Davao, we complied with observing community quarantine at first and now with the regional lockdown. We are used to this kind of discipline.

We surely miss the festivities of Araw ng Dabaw but next year will be a grandiose one. Besides, within the next 30 days, I can watch my periwinkles grow and come to flower.

Stay safe.