It has been a year and a half since Covid-19 has showed its impact in the Philippines,

when the early cases of the virus first spread, which marked the official start of the pandemic
that has affected millions of lives of Filipinos in the country. In the past years, the world has
encountered numbers of viruses, namely, SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2011. However, these
viruses that have been mentioned has not totally infected the Philippines unlike the
Coronavirus which has affected the country to a great extent. The country has exactly 1,308,352
Coronavirus cases wherein 22,652 suffered fatalities. As the Coronavirus dominates the
country, the government then has acted and extended help and assistance. The Coronavirus is a
threat to the global community, testing health systems, the institutions, and the government to
effectively and efficiently respond to it.

The Philippines has been described as the longest and strictest in Covid-19
lockdowns in the world. The Philippine government relied massively on the military and the
police to make sure that all government issued policies and protocols were followed especially
during the extreme lockdowns that are implemented in both heavily affected rural and urban
places in the Philippines. This has then been described by intellectuals and mere citizens in the
Philippines and around the world about the Philippine government’s response to Covid-19 as
“draconian”, where in the government considers that every small acts and offenses delivers
heavy punishments. Aside from “militarized” or “police-centric” way of the government in
ensuring protocols are acknowledged by the people, the government also implemented travel
restrictions and community interventions. Starting with travel bans that helps preventing
foreigners that are exposed to the virus outside the country to furtherly spread the sickness in
the Philippines. However, it was briefly successful because, other countries that are not
included in the travel ban and the virus are already spreading in their country are not tested
which then resulted to increased number of cases in the Philippines. Community interventions
such as community quarantines and curfews are implemented in each city and barangays in the
country. Social distancing, suspension of classes, strict transportation checkpoints and closures
to prevent face to face contacts and prevent infection among the citizens. The government also
administered temporary closure of non-essential businesses and establishments and
encouraged large companies to work from home. And now, the government are giving vaccines
prioritizing senior citizens in health centers for free.

Even though Philippines are limited in terms of resources, the country is still trying
what is perceived to be the best for everyone. With those protocols and policies that are
implemented, the Philippines still managed to keep up with other countries. In fact, the
country’s response to Covid-19 is very much similar to what is South Korea and Singapore’s
approach were, which is gradual control through effective use of public health practices.
However, we have differences unlike South Korea, we don’t have enough laboratories and
equipment to execute mass testing and identify cases among Filipino Citizens. Unlike Singapore,
we have poor defenses at the primary level health as we encounter unorganized and even lack
of care beds to accommodate the huge number of patients that are seeking treatment day by
day. We even have lack of ventilators that can help prevent acute respiratory diseases caused
by pneumonia. But amidst all of these difficulties, the government stayed determined to help
our country in preventing and decreasing the number of cases every day. With all of these
efforts to control the situation, we can tell that we have a brighter picture of a better and
healthy country.