Coronavirus Pandemic – Life under Quarantine

I don’t really have anything to blog about this topic since this is not unique to me, but it might be odd if I didn’t even mention anything about it.

I remember talking to my wife back in January about the articles and news that are popping up on my feed about the “mysterious disease” that’s causing death in Wuhan China, that it might be something very serious. Because any “death in China” is something China would not want the world to hear, so if this information is leaking, then this should be something very big.

It was the third week of January when mainstream news outlets in the Philippines started reporting about the “outbreak” in China. The first confirmed case was on January 30, a Chinese woman. Two months after the first case, the first Filipino without travel history who tested positive to the virus was confirmed on March 5. Two months since then, as of the moment, there are 10,610 confirmed cases in the country.

Feb 4 and facemasks are already sold out

Quarantine and Lockdowns

March 8 – president Duterte declared the Philippines under the state of a public health emergency
March 12 – president Duterte declared that Metro Manila will be on lockdown starting on March 15. There have long queues of people in provincial transport terminals trying to get out of Manila to avoid the lockdown, luckily, my brother was able to go back to our province in Bulacan safely.
March 16 – president declared a Luzon-wide “enhanced community quarantine” (ECQ) which will take effect on March 17.

What’s (not) happening under Quarantine

There has been a lot of restrictions under the quarantine guidelines, but to give a summary:

All non-essential establishments and businesses are closed. Banks, grocery store, pharmaceutical store, hospitals are allowed to operate. They were also only allowed to operate at shorter business hours.
Only 1 person in a household is allowed to go out. We were given a quarantine-pass which we always bring when we want to go out and buy for our grocery. If you do not have this nor if you are not wearing a facemask they will ask you to go back home (but later on, they started arresting people who are not following this rule). And you are not allowed to cross another barangay (Subdivision in our case) after 5pm.

Life under pandemic

Family

We were initially planning to move back in Bulacan for good, we scheduled it on the long weekend of April 10 – April 13 (Good Friday – Easter Monday in Australia). We planned everything from reserving/renting the jeep we will use to move our stuff; to even applying for internet connection on our home in Bulacan weeks before our scheduled move. Because of the pandemic and the lockdown, we are now paying extra rent, utility bills and 2 internet bills.

It is also disappointing that I cannot bring my child outside so he can play and see new stuff. We were kinda jealous with other kids playing on those “kid’s play zone” inside the malls because we cannot bring our son who cannot walk yet. But a week after my son learned how to walk, they implemented the quarantine.

Lifestyle

Though its a little expensive, all the stores we need are just 1 corner away from us. But for medicine or withdrawing cash, we have to go out of our Subdivision, but we are still lucky as those establishments are just 5-minute walk from us. My wife is the one who primarily goes out to buy for our grocery. We are not like those inefficient couples you hear from news who puts the task to the husbands and since the husband is not fully aware of what to buy they just end up messing it and consequently redoing it, they think its cute, but we think it’s stupid and inefficient, beats the purpose of minimal contact. But when I really have to go outside, I would also include the other stuff in the grocery list so we can haul more stuff in a single go.

Work

Since the lockdown, everyone has been working from home, at least those who can, so I wasn’t expecting my work would be affected since I had always been working from home. Unfortunately, my company is having a problem giving us work, so they called for volunteers who are willing to have their working days cut. Since I have an irregular work setup, I need to be always on top of everything, so the slightest hint that my company will be going under, I should be the most prepared one. I volunteered to have my working days cut off into 3-days a week, then I started doing freelancing to cut my losses and to make feel on what option I would have in case I lose my current client. My freelancing experience actually ended better than I expected which I would create another blog post for. Though I wasn’t earning the same amount I am losing I actually felt satisfied with my freelancing experience.

Conclusion

I’m quite thankful that even though our life has been affected by the pandemic, it wasn’t as bad as how we hear others are getting it.